Green Manufacturing – Arriscraft Style

Our unique stone defined.

^{Going Green – from de-littering to sustainability}

Depending on your age, you might recall the early years of cleaning up ditches through the “Adopt a Road” program, the first recycling program in your community, the shift to reusable bags and coffee mugs, and many other steps we’ve taken as global citizens to clean up this planet.

According to one source, there’s a specific date that the green movement was born:  April 22, 1970. The very first “Earth Day” was organized by one U.S. senator and a core of young organizers and rallied 2,000 communities and 10,000 schools to carry out clean up activities and marches to raise awareness of how “humans were messing up their world”.*

Over more than 40 years, ‘going green’ for consumers has evolved from feel good actions to everyday routine. But on a wider scale, governments at every level around the globe have instituted sustainability measures, setting targets and parameters on emissions, resource usage, building performance, material sourcing, and much more.

Arriscraft’s Green Legacy – from the 1950s to today

Just as the ‘green movement’ has evolved over the last number of decades, Arriscraft has continuously refined its brand of green manufacturing. We are compelled to share our unique process, which delivered green building stone long before it was trendy and today has great relevance to consumers and building professionals alike.

In the 1950s, Arriscraft’s green legacy began with a simple manufacturing process that delivered remarkably authentic looking and durable building stone. Throughout many refinements over the years, the fundamental product qualities of incredible aesthetics and performance remain unchanged.

Arriscraft produces calcium silicate masonry units (CSMUs); this type of manufactured stone is distinct from both clay bricks and concrete masonry products. CSMUs are made from basic, naturally occurring raw materials through a process that replicates how stone is formed in the Earth.

Our ‘Green’ Stone – a unique definition

Naturally occurring materials are mixed and then pressed into modular-sized units under high pressure. The units are then subjected to a highly monitored steam system to produce a masonry unit with uniformly fine-grained texture. This Natural Process® technology is a fast-paced replication of how the Earth creates natural stone. During the manufacturing process, the raw materials chemically react to form a calcium silicate hydrate binder resulting in durable, strong and integrally bonded units. No synthetic binding agents are added – the chemical reactions occur naturally.

Unlike any other manufactured stone, our CSMUs are entirely natural, except for the color pigments that are added as the raw materials combine. This mixing creates masonry units with through-body color, so stones can by cut, shaped, hand-chiseled or dressed on site while maintaining the fine-grained texture and color.

Arriscraft occupies a unique space – between stone from the earth and manufactured stone. As such, Arriscraft stone delivers the benefits of both:  the realism and performance of quarried stone, plus standard and efficient installation. Perhaps you now understand how our special ‘green’ product can’t be truly defined by either category.

Did you know?

According to the LEED classification system, “recycled” requires that the raw materials be brought in from another site. So our Matterhorn Building Stone, which is made from 99% reclaimed material (leftovers from other production runs) is not considered “recycled” by the LEED program? Kind of ironic, since this stone might be one of the most purely green and recycled manufactured products available on the market today!

* The Huffingtonpost.com