Reducing our carbon footprint with tile: Part 6

The role of qualified labor in reducing our carbon footprint with tile

by Scott Conwell, FAIA, FCSI, LEED AP, Director of Industry Development International Masonry Institute 

In this final installment of our 6-part series on reducing our carbon footprint with tile, we’ll briefly review the high points covered so far and conclude with a discussion of perhaps the most important contributor to long-lasting sustainable tile installations: qualified labor.

Part 1 of the series (Click Here) put into perspective the construction industry’s current focus on sustainability and provided an overview of tile’s inherent sustainable attributes. Part 2 (Click Here) was an introduction to transparency in reporting building material ingredients, and parts 3 (Click Here) & 4 (Click Here) took a deep dive into quantifying, screening, and disclosing material ingredients and their environmental impact, and optimizing material selection based on the transparency of manufacturers’ reporting this information in standardized forms such as Health Product Declarations (HPDs). Part 5 (Click Here) discussed how Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) provide a standardized platform for material manufacturers to report Global Warming Potential (GWP) of their products based on product category-consistent Life Cycle Analyses (LCAs), offering designers a way to compare the relative environmental impacts of materials they are considering.

Taking all the above into account, it can be concluded that durable materials like tile and stone contribute to a building’s sustainable performance… but only if these materials are installed properly. This brings us to the final point of the series: the role of qualified labor in reducing our carbon footprint with tile.

To communicate the importance of qualified labor and the role it plays in optimizing the permanence of the tile installation, the tile industry has developed well-established benchmarks that credential and identify best-practice tile contractors and installers.

For example, the International Masonry Industry Training and Education Foundation (IMTEF) delivers comprehensive tile training for pre-apprentice, apprentice, and journeyworker tile setters and finishers on behalf of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (IUBAC). Installers who hold an Advanced Certifications for Tile Installers (ACT) certification have demonstrated outstanding technical efficiency. And tile contractors who carry TCAA’s Trowel of Excellence certification have proven to possess the technical and business skills and experience for even the most complex installations. Architects and specifiers are encouraged to consider these programs and require minimum levels of competence in their projects’ Tiling specifications to ensure a long-lasting and sustainable installation.

Conclusion

When tile was first manufactured and laid in our buildings centuries ago, there were no sustainability standards or rating systems because durable materials were used everywhere, to the credit of the builder. But now, with the proliferation of cheaper synthetic materials and a misplaced focus on reducing initial cost, the construction industry has begun to standardize ways we measure health and human impacts of building materials, and to discourage the use of materials that may be harmful.

Fortunately, building material suppliers are now paying more attention to their manufacturing and other practices, including transparency in reporting. Since tile has always been made of natural ingredients and of durable performance, the GWP data reported in tile’s material disclosures, LCAs, EPDs, all point to the fact that, when installed by qualified labor, tile will last the lifetime of the project.