New CEU Class on Certified Stone

OBERLIN, Ohio & CHESTERTOWN, N.Y. – MIA+BSI adds a new CEU course to promote natural-stone use in green building under the ANSI/NSC 373 dimensional-stone sustainability standard.

spanierKathy Spanier“Certified Stone: How the Natural Stone Sustainability Standard Can Assist Green Building Projects,” authored by Kathy Spanier of Coldspring, is approved for CEU credits through AIA, IDCEC, LACES, and GBCI, attesting that the subject is in high demand for architecture and design communities.

Learning objectives for the course are:

  • Understanding the basic principles of the standard’s Chain of Custody (COC) to recognize efforts natural stone quarries, processors and their distribution chains make to verify a dimensional stone product has been produced and transported in an environmentally preferable manner consistent with the principles of sustainability.
  • Interpreting how compliance to the natural dimension stone sustainability standard’s environmental, ecological, human health and social responsibility requirements for stone quarrying and production satisfy the growing demand for products that exhibit high performance in Life Cycle Assessment.
  • Comparing attributes of the certified natural stone to sustainability measuring requirements of the most widely accepted green building programs such as LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, LBC – the Living Building Challenge and IGCC – International Green Construction Code, to enhance appreciation for the use of natural stone as a leading sustainable building material.
  • Architects/Landscape Architects & Specifiers will benefit from understanding how this standard supports the growing demand for rigorous environmental documentation for building product material.

“Green building continues to double every three years, and material certifications are becoming more important to reassure the construction industry and consumers that they are specifying/purchasing a material that is extracted and processed in an environmentally, ecological, human health, and socially responsible way,” Spanier said. “The CEU that we developed is one of many ways in which the stone industry is creating awareness and education about the role stone plays in the green building market and how it connects to green building programs.

“It serves as an important addition to the library of continuing education tools to support the industry and the sustainability movement. The course has been presented at AIA, TISE East, and will be presented at TISE West in January 2017.”

For more information about this course, and to learn about the CEU program, visit www.naturalstoneinstitute.org/CEU.

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