STONE IS THE MATERIAL OF THE FUTURE
Natural stone is a material derived directly from the natural environment that has not undergone any structural change. Energy is required only to extract and cut it.
It offers many environmental benefits:
It is ‘manufactured’ by storing CO2, unlike other synthetic materials which release CO2 into the atmosphere as they are manufactured.
It contains no chemical products, making it a healthy, neutral product for areas where people live.
Stone is an inexhaustible resource: the earth has abundant supplies of it, and it is infinitely recyclable.
Quarrying blends into the landscape
Good economic management of our resource, through optimisation of the material
We take great care to protect our raw material in the quarry. This is reflected in our controlled management of our resource:
For example, instead of explosives we now use sawing equipment that consumes less material and energy.
We adapt our operations to the natural constraints of the quarry, to generate the least possible waste. This includes dividing blocks of different quality between our various product sectors: gabions, highways products, and masonry products.
All our offcuts are put to the best possible use in by-products such as cobbles and crazy paving.
Reducing the carbon footprint of our operations
Since the natural stone processing plants and the STONEBOX® filling facilities are both located on the quarry site, we significantly reduce transport needs and the movement of raw materials on the public road network. We ensure that our equipment is replaced frequently, to take advantage of technological advances that reduce the production of gas or pollutants.
SETP teams have designed a mobile machine to fill the STONEBOX® gabions. If the construction site to be supplied is too distant from our production site, this mobile facility moves as close as possible to the construction site to minimise transport needs.
Water and waste management
Closed circuit management of water:
Water is used to cool the tools and improve their abrasion. It is recovered by a specific drainage system, then decanted to separate the limestone sludge from the clear water, which is then returned to the circuit. This permanent recycling of water makes us independent from local natural resources.
Recycling of our by-products and waste
Offcuts from extraction and stripping of the solid rock are directed to a crushing unit where they are calibrated then used to make STONEBOX® gabions. These gabions are prefilled in the quarry, and enable us to use the upper layers of our quarry that we cannot extract as specifically sized rock, as well as the offcuts from quarrying the bands of marble stone.
100% of factory waste is recycled:
The limestone sludge from sawing the stone is used in agriculture as a soil improver,
The offcuts from sawing and cutting are recycled into aggregate and sand by the crushing plant.
UNESCO Heritage and quarries
The Comblanchien quarry and its activities, together with the Corton quarry, are included in the Burgundy Climats site listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015. SETP is actively involved in the improvement work required by the official bodies.
The bands of Comblanchien and Corton stone form the terroir of the best Burgundy wines, and play a key role in the diversity of the wine’s aromas, as well as endowing them with their true identity.
This is a manufacturing activity that has existed in the Comblanchien basin for over 100 years, and it is an integral part of the local economic fabric: the extraction of Comblanchien and Corton stone and the associated skills of sawing, cutting and masonry are a recognised element of this heritage. Low walls, the winegrowers’ stone cabins known as cabottes, and other structures such as the walled Clos Vougeot vineyard and the Hospices de Beaune were built using materials from our quarries.
Burgundy-climats-Unesco-World-Heritage-Burgundy quarries Burgundy Climats - Unesco World Heritage
