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Ecofriendlytile

Argenta goes beyond its environmental commitment by creating a brand that brings together all the actions that help our customers certify the sustainability of our products.

LIFE-

CYCLE

GREEN

BUILDING

ORGANISING

SYSTEMS

Product life-cycle

When sourcing raw materials we take the environmental variable into consideration to reduce the impact, selecting the RECYCLED MATERIAL content:
Based on the UNE-EN ISO 14021 standard: Environmental Labels and Environmental Declarations. Argenta can provide the TYPE II LABEL for the recycled content environmental declaration.

Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)

GlobalEDP Programme

GlobalEDP Code: EN 17160 – 004.

Argenta has issued an environmental product declaration, which was developed and verified in accordance with the UNE-EN ISO 14025:2010, EN 15804:2012+A1:2013 and EN 17160:2019 standards.

The environmental product declaration includes the ceramic tile families according to the classification based on the UNE-NE 14411:2016 standard.

  • Tile – BIII.

  • Porcelain stoneware – BIa.

  • Glazed stoneware – BIb.

Sustainable building

Within this scope, based on market demand and efficient parts of the building and the future value of constructed assets (including resources, energy, sustainability, the circular economy, etc.), Argenta is making solutions available to certify the reduction in environmental impacts in areas ranging from construction to use and final demolition of the building. There are currently voluntary benchmarks for building sustainability certification. It will not be long until they are compulsory just like energy ratings, as that has benefits for both society and the environment, but especially for those living in the home (lower consumption of water, electricity and resources, etc.)

Argenta strives day by day to respond to the ongoing challenges raised by building sustainability and presents the evidence in a transparent and structured manner in order to aid assessment by building sustainability certification bodies: LEED, BREEAM and VERDE.

Argenta is continuing to progress with this assessment framework and includes useful information to enable our clients to perform the Level(s) assessment at building level.

Level(s) is an open-source assessment framework produced by the European Commission based on existing regulations to provide a common EU focus to assess the environmental performance of buildings. The building sustainability certification schema in EU BREEAM, DGNB, VERDE, HQE and ITACA, etc.

LEED

LEED®, Leader in Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Design, is an assessment system and international standard developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to encourage the development of buildings based on sustainable and high-efficiency criteria. LEED certifies a building sustainability through recognition of its performance in five key areas of human health and the environment: sustainable site, water saving, energy efficiency, selection of materials and environmental quality.

Benefits of certification:

1. Savings and emissions reduction.

2. Improvements in comfort, health and productivity.

VERDE

A methodology for environmental assessment and certification of buildings.

In recent years, green building concepts have been developed to include new concepts and nuances. Due to different factors such as climate change and resource scarcity, there is greater awareness of environmental problems among both the public and designers. This set of elements has led to study of buildings going beyond mere “good practices”, taking account of problems involving resource saving, comfort and selection of materials according to environmental criterial.

The assessment system is based on a performance method in accordance with the philosophy in the Technical Building Code and European directives. It is founded on the principles of bioarchitecture and that the building has to be constructed in an environmentally friendly way, in keeping with its surroundings and with high levels of comfort and quality of life for users.

BREEAM

BREEAM® (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology) is a global method for assessment and certification of the technical sustainability of buildings.

It encourages more sustainable construction, which translates into higher profitability for those who build, operate and/or maintain the building; a reduction in its environmental impact; and greater comfort and health for those who live in, work in or use the building.

It assesses impact in 10 categories (Management, Health & Wellbeing, Energy, Transport, Water, Materials, Waste, Land Use and Ecology, Pollution and Innovation) and gives a final score after applying an environmental weighting factor that takes account of the relative importance of each impact area. It comprises the various stages of design, structure and use of buildings and provides assessment and certification schema based on building type and use.

Organising systems

In order to establish itself as a leading ceramic group in terms of its environmental commitment, Argenta incorporates the necessary resources in all of its production processes to care for our environment. Our goal is to manage resources and waste as well as possible and reduce the negative environmental impact of our industrial business.

ISO 14001

The purpose of the Integrated Environmental Authorisation granted to Argenta is to prevent, reduce and control atmospheric, water and soil pollution by establishing an integrated prevention and control system that prevents damage to the environment.

By implementing an Environmental Management System according to the ISO 14001 international standard, Argenta Cerámica S.L. is positioned as a socially responsible company.

Argenta Cerámica S.L.’s quality system is certified by an independent authority (AENOR). Annual audits are carried out to verify that the ISO 14001 requirements are being met and the Environmental Quality Management System implemented remains in place.

Commitments:

Continuous improvement.

Best available techniques:

The facilities in our production plant are equipped with the most advanced environmental technologies and we are committed to R&D&I as our company philosophy.
The anti-pollution devices undergo rigorous checks by accredited verifiers to ensure they comply with the emissions limits.

We apply all the best available techniques:

Prevention of particulate emissions into the atmosphere.
Reduction of noise emissions.
Reduction of water use.
Zero discharge: reuse of water from the production process.
Waste recovery.
Integrated packaging management system.
Energy efficiency.

Compliance with legislation

Integrated Environmental Authorisation:

Argenta Cerámica has the Integrated Environmental Authorisation. We were the third company in the ceramics sector to obtain it. The Environmental Authorisation assesses the impacts of our facilities on water, air and soil with an integrated approach.

Environmental Benefits

The environmental impacts of the activity.
It manages resources and waste as well as possible from both a quantitative and a qualitative point of view, resulting in less-hazardous raw materials and products.

Pollution prevention.

Kyoto protocol:

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by using residual heat recovery systems.

Recycling:

Use of recycled materials and environmentally-friendly inks on packaging.

Green construction:

Natural product: Ceramic raw materials come from the earth, minerals (quartz, kaolinite, illite, talc, silica, feldspar minerals, etc.) that are extracted primarily from regional mines.

Indoor air quality. Inert product, no emissions. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Life-cycle: using ceramic tiles has an impact on the durability of buildings. Their installation is permanent, eliminating the need to send them to landfill or incinerators.

EMPLOYMENT
Would you like to work with us?

If you are interested in joining our staff, send us your CV through our employment section.

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