Those who have chosen EPDItaly tell their story: Gresmalt S.p.a
Alessandra Salvarani – Member of the Executive Board & Vice President
What are the main reasons that pushed you towards the voluntary EPD certification?
Gresmalt embarked on a path towards the sustainability of production processes and organizational models in 2015, based on the emerging technologies of Industry 4.0 at that time. Since then, the company has progressively selected, perfected and implemented tools to assess sustainability performance (environmental, economic, social and technological) in real time, exploiting the great potential of digitization for data collection and processing. Now, after having validated the sustainability assessment systems and collected and processed environmental, technological and socio-economic data, Gresmalt aims to legitimize and give credibility to this commitment in the eyes of its customers and more generally of its stakeholders. The EPD environmental declaration represents the first step in the direction of a strategy of transparency and authority aimed at providing information validated by accredited and above all always verifiable verifiers, should the interested parties wish to ascertain it.
Which product of your company has obtained the EPD? What are its main features?
The Gresmalt EPD refers to “porcelain stoneware” tiles (EN 14411 – ISO 13006 – Group B1a), which is a technically very performing ceramic material used in construction for floor and wall coverings, both indoors and outdoors. The manufacturing process involves the use of georesources (clays, kaolins, feldspar and sands) for the preparation of the mixture and pressing of the tile support which will then be glazed and digitally decorated before firing in continuous ovens on refractory rollers at a temperature of 1220-1230 ° C. The process of densification of the glazed product during firing, with the elimination of residual porosity and the formation of bonds between the particles of the ceramic mixture, is referred to as sintering. Porcelain stoneware stands out, among other construction materials, for a high degree of sintering which gives the product properties appreciated by users, such as: mechanical resistance, frost resistance and cleanability.
What are the main advantages obtained from the publication of the Environmental Product Declaration? What are the repercussions on the final consumer?
With the EPD Gresmalt intends to respond to the increasingly widespread environmental sensitivity of designers and users of the ceramic material by demonstrating, with objective and verified data, our environmental commitment in all phases of the product life cycle. It follows that the EPD also becomes an important tool to counteract the greenwashing actions undertaken by producers who are not equally responsible. Finally, the choice of including in the EPD the comparative assessment of the environmental impact developed in one case also taking into account the impact generated by the production plants and on the other excluding them, provides stakeholders with transparent communication on the performance of our three plants and products. that we manufacture.
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Do you think that EPDItaly can contribute to spreading the culture of product sustainability?
Certainly, EPDItaly can play a key role in spreading the culture of sustainability, especially as a guarantor of the correct application of UNI EN 15804: 2019 and of the methods of execution of the environmental impact assessment (LCA) analysis protocols, which together constitute the methodological foundation of the EPD.
How important, in your opinion, is the presence of sustainable Italian products within a Program Operator that makes the international network one of its strengths?
For a company like Gresmalt, strongly oriented towards international markets, directly accessing the mutual recognition of the EPD by the main world Program Operators, means promoting knowledge of Made in Italy in its not only aesthetic dimension, but also of responsible manufacturing.