The Scottish Stone Group has been set up to lead and inform the debate on how the growth of Scotland’s stone sector can sustainably contribute to Scotland’s economy.
The Scottish Stone Group has been set up to:
Promote – Promoting collaboratively within the sector the positives of using natural stone, such as creating skilled jobs in Scotland, supporting communities, and producing sustainable and ethically sourced materials.
Represent – Providing unified trade representation at a political, legislative and environmental level in Scotland to the Scottish Government, its agencies, Scottish Parliament and local authorities.
Innovate – Sharing innovation and working together where possible for the good of the industry – raising the level of quality standards across Scotland.
Inform – Engaging with research, academia, skills development or knowledge transfer to enhance the value of the industry.
Why we believe it is an important industry to promote:
- Economical – promotes an important manufacturing industry and has the potential to create more jobs. In time this could allow for more apprenticeships and keeps the specialised skills function of this traditional industry alive through the succession planning process;
- Good Investment – Stone lasts and should serve a purpose for hundreds of years, it is the best value of any building material in terms of life cost;
- Environmental – natural stone is not made, it already exists, processing it uses minimal energy. There is a dramatic difference in the carbon footprint between our own indigenous stone and imported stone, reconstituted (manmade/lookalikes) and other building materials;
- Clear Provenance – you know where the stone has come from, quality assurances and future availability;
- Social Responsibility – we are ethical, compliant employers operating within the Scottish economy;
- Built Heritage – Visitors are drawn to Scotland to admire what our forebears achieved with natural stone. A vibrant stone processing industry has a vital role in preserving the historic built heritage and making an important contribution to the construction of our future built environment.
