Who chose EPDItaly tells its story: Cubo 2010

Interview with Luca Marinelli, sales manager Cubo, a construction company specializing in the installation of block masonry and exterior paving.

Founded in 2010, Cubo construction company has 30 years of experience in the installation of block masonry and exterior paving for a wide variety of applications. Thanks to its turnkey approach, it guarantees the client complete support throughout all phases of the project. Cubo takes care of the management of its workers and site logistics, carrying out inspections and material procurement, and monitors the progress of the work with the support of its technicians.
The company decided to rely on EPDItaly to obtain EPD certification – the first company in Europe – for its installation service.

In this regard, we interviewed Luca Marinelli, Cubo sales manager, who told us about the motivations that led the company to adopt EPD certification and what are the advantages of this document. The peculiarity lies in the certification of a service: although in fact EPD is often associated with products, its extension to services is also possible.

What are the main motivations that pushed you toward voluntary EPD certification?

We work on the most important construction sites in Italy, mainly in Milan, which is the beating heart of many new construction sites and numerous cutting-edge building operations. So we maintain close contact with all the most sought-after innovations and certifications, as per the trend of an increasingly green construction market: the more certifications you have, the more certainty you have about consumption and sustainability, the more your company’s reputation increases.
Our core business is not about products-which we only buy and resell-but services. So we delved deeper into EPDs to see if it was possible to request and obtain them for these activities as well. We then made an assessment and decided to certify our installation service.

Which service in your company has obtained EPDs? What are its main features?

We have obtained EPD for all the services we provide, namely masonry and flooring installation. These activities allow us to have everything under control from the point of view of consumption, use and waste. We are trailblazers in our industry: our turnkey approach allows us to provide a finished wall. In this sense we look ahead, and also being certified on installation allows us to be extremely competitive in the market.

What are the main benefits gained from publishing the Environmental Product Declaration? What are the impacts on the end consumer?

We have grown a lot over the years, and this certification allows us to lengthen the gap with our competitors. Already now we are recognized as a leader in the masonry-in-situ market, and with THE EPD we will be even more advantaged: we provide a service of a certain kind and we also have the certifications that attest to this service.
For the end consumer, the advantages are indirect, but they are there. We come in the early stages of construction, and the advantage of having an EPD is that designers aiming to obtain certain certifications for buildings (e.g., LEED) are facilitated in this respect. In fact, the masonry installation accounts for two-thirds of the masonry itself, and it is therefore easier for designers to achieve higher energy classes later in order to achieve greater recognition through sustainability protocols.
This means that the end consumer will also inevitably benefit by enjoying an even better performing building from an energy standpoint.

Do you think EPDItaly can help spread the culture of product sustainability?

EPD is an incentive to do better: declaring consumption makes everyone more conscientious and helps improve the sustainability of the entire building sector. The analyses required to obtain certification are enlightening to realize waste and overconsumption that before were often taken somewhat lightly. A culture of sustainability pushes companies to constantly improve.

How important, in your opinion, is the presence of Italian sustainable products within a Program Operator that makes international networking one of its strengths?

The presence of Italian sustainable products abroad is clearly important, especially since EPDItaly is a Program Operator that is part of the international ECO Platform circuit. In our case we can also lead the way abroad because we are the first in Europe to have obtained a certification on the service of masonry and flooring installation. So abroad we could be taken as an example or perhaps, tomorrow, extend our activity outside Italy as well.