The Story of our Terrazzo

 

When we established The Ethical Stone Company in 2012, at our core was the desire to bring innovative architectural products to market whilst avoiding quarrying and manufacturing activities which might harm people and the environment. In recent times, this ambition has proved ever more challenging.

The construction industry and the geopolitical landscape is changing. With delays at the ports, haulage costs at record highs, and embodied carbon being imported into the UK in the millions of tonnes; something has to change.

 

“Transportation is already one of the world’s biggest sources of greenhouse gases, and its emissions are predicted to grow dramatically”

 

We realised that the solution needed to be homegrown. Here in the UK, we’re not as good as our continental friends at producing marble on a large scale, but we are excellent at making aggregates – gravel or stone chippings to you and me, which are used for building roads and houses. It also happens that if you wash and polish these aggregates, they transform into beautiful lustrous stones, rich in colour and character.

So the idea for an exclusively UK-sourced aggregate terrazzo was born and we took our concept to the only terrazzo manufacturer in the country, which happens to be in Manchester – the hometown of Ethical Stone company founder. It turned out that the owners of the factory went to the same clubs as our founder in their younger days, including the famous Hacienda!

Buoyed by their new-found friendship and excited by the prospect of exploring the UK’s landscape for its delightful wealth of stone aggregates, Ethical Stone Terrazzo was created – a 100% British Stone, British made, low carbon solid surface that makes a vital contribution to the architectural products landscape, helping architects, specifiers and the UK meet our collective Net-Zero commitments.