Recently, the stone industry has achieved a significant breakthrough in green manufacturing. Based on the newly revised national standard "General Rules for Green Factory Evaluation" (GB/T 36132-2025), the industry standard "Evaluation Requirements for Green Factories in the Natural Stone Industry" has been revised and renamed "Evaluation Requirements for Green Factories in the Natural Stone Industry," and passed online expert review on February 27, 2026.
This standard (project number: 2020-0445T-JC) was approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2020 and was led by the China Stone Association. Participating units included the China National Materials Artificial Crystal Research Institute, Beijing Guojianlianxin Certification Center, and more than ten leading companies in the industry, such as Global Stone, Gaoshi Industrial, and Wanli Stone. From September 2020, the drafting team conducted extensive research and data collection in major domestic stone production bases such as Yunfu, Hezhou, Xiamen, Shuitou, and Wulian. After multiple rounds of discussions, written reviews, and public opinion solicitation, the technical review was completed in 2023. Because the national standard "General Rules for Green Factory Evaluation" on which it is based is undergoing revision, this industry standard had been pending publication to ensure consistency between higher and lower-level standards.
This revision strictly aligns with the new version of the "General Rules for Green Factory Evaluation" (GB/T 36132-2025), and, considering the prominent characteristics of the natural stone industry-high dust, high water consumption, and high solid waste-establishes a professional evaluation system. The standard revolves around five dimensions: low-carbon energy, high-efficiency resources, clean production, green products, and intensive land use, with 12 quantifiable specific indicators.
Regarding low-carbon energy, the standard stipulates that the advanced value and benchmark value for comprehensive energy consumption per unit product should not exceed 1.5 kgce/m² and 2.0 kgce/m², respectively; drawing on the US ANSI/NSI 373-2022 standard, it introduces a renewable energy utilization rate indicator for the first time, setting the advanced value and benchmark value at 25% and 10%, respectively; and it encourages enterprises to build energy and carbon management platforms to promote digital control of carbon emissions.
The resource efficiency dimension encompasses two indicators: water consumption per unit product and solid waste recycling rate. The water consumption indicator aligns with the "Industrial Water Quota Part 66: Stone Materials" (GB/T 18916.66-2024), with advanced and benchmark values of no less than 0.08 m³/m² and 0.240 m³/m², respectively. The solid waste recycling rate requires enterprises to fully recycle waste materials such as scraps and filter press sludge, with an advanced value of 100% and a benchmark value of no less than 80%.
Regarding clean production, three indicators are set: green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading, particulate matter concentration, and water resource utilization rate. The number of transformation and upgrading projects is scored based on implementation over the past three years, with three projects constituting an advanced value. Particulate matter concentration is evaluated based on monitoring data from fugitive emissions monitoring points at the plant boundary and within the workshop, with benchmark and advanced values referencing the corresponding grade indicators in "Green Product Evaluation: Stone Materials" (GB/T 44178-2024). Production wastewater should, in principle, be fully reused. Considering practical factors such as rainwater and sewage separation and the setting of sewage outlets, a benchmark value of 80% reuse rate is set.
Product greening includes three indicators: the proportion of green product output, typical green design cases, and the proportion of carbon footprint-calculated product output. The first two and the last one are scored by multiplying the proportion of certified or calculated product output to total output by a weighted average, without a specific threshold value. Green design cases require enterprises to effectively reduce energy and resource consumption and environmental impact in raw material selection, processing, packaging, transportation, and use and maintenance, and to demonstrate the cost advantages of the stone throughout its entire life cycle. Three cases constitute a full score.
Land use intensification is reflected through land output rate, which is subdivided into three items: output value per unit area, plot ratio, and building coefficient. The calculation formula adopts the provisions of the new version of the "General Rules for Green Factory Evaluation," continuing the relevant requirements of the earlier version. Given that the natural stone industry previously lacked a standard for output value per unit area, this indicator reflects both the level of intensive land use and the enterprise's operating efficiency, and differentiates requirements according to product category. The minimum plot ratio and building density shall be no less than 0.7 and 30%, respectively, with reference to the benchmark values set in the "Control Indicators for Construction Land of Industrial Projects". A plot ratio exceeding twice the benchmark or a building coefficient exceeding 1.5 times the benchmark shall be considered as advanced value requirements.