Life Cycle Inventory of techniques for stone quarrying, cutting and finishing: Contribution to fill data gaps

In the current EU Environmental and Raw Materials policies, raw materials play a key role in the transition from a linear to a circular economy, where a Life Cycle (LC) approach can help improve the overall sustainability. Within the dimension stone sector, some environmental studies have been developed through the standardised Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool. However, these studies are often based on incomplete or not fully representative inventory datasets. In this context, this paper contributes to fill some gaps in Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) datasets in terms of quality and availability. Detailed LCI datasets on stone quarrying, cutting and finishing techniques are described and discusses, as well as provided in file format for future use by LCA practitioners. Datasets refer to the techniques most commonly employed in the Italian stone sector (and exported worldwide) and are mainly based on primary data collected from 2014 to 2016. This contribution can therefore support future studies and concretely support more sustainable solutions in the stone sector, as well as boost the use of LCA among stone companies.