FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact: Geoff Geils
Email: ggeils@icestoneusa.com
Telephone: (718) 624-4900
IceStone, the World’s Most Sustainable Concrete Durable Surface, Selected as a 21st Century Building Material for Cooper-Hewitt Exhibit
Brooklyn, NY, March 23, 2010 – One glance at an IceStone slab, the 100% recycled glass in a concrete matrix, and you might not realize you are looking at a material of the 21st century. But Miranda Magagnini, the co-CEO knows it; she has worked tirelessly on the color palette and the social and environmental elements built into the product and company practices for which the company has received many accolades. And despite newcomers to the green product revolution, IceStone was recently chosen as an outstanding sustainable material by the Cooper-Hewitt’s National Design Triennial, “Why Design Now?” which will run from May 14, 2010, through Jan 9, 2011.
The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution is the only museum in the nation devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. The Museum presents compelling perspectives on the impact of design on daily life through active educational and curatorial programming. Being chosen for “Why Design Now?” reinforces that sustainable material like IceStone can be high design. The exhibit will explore the work of designers addressing human and environmental problems across many fields of design from architecture and product design, graphics, new media and landscape design. Global for the first time, the Triennial’s reach will reflect the connectedness of design practices and the need for international cooperation to solve the world’s problems. IceStone will be featured in the ‘materials’ portion, emphasizing the need to reduce energy and fossil fuels in manufacturing and incorporate post consumer content.
While IceStone can be considered the greenest countertop on the market, transparency, Magagnini believes, is the new green, with facts on processes, ingredients and materials as the new word-of-mouth. As more and more companies enter the green building segment, consumers should educate themselves on which products use petrochemicals, toxins or naturally mined stone such as granite or marble that may be mined half way around the world under poor or dangerous labor condition. “The more consumers ask,” said Magagnini, the more companies will shift to offer better choices.”
The green products segment is expected to reach $400 billion in 2010, according to Neilson and NMI. For IceStone’s segment, NextGen Research (2009) estimates the market for green-building materials (both the commercial and residential) will continue to grow from $455.3 billion last year to $571 billion by 2013.* With few industry certifications, calling yourself ‘green’ is an easy way to benefit from a huge market growth opportunity. And as Magagnini points out, most other countertops calling themselves ‘green’ are made with resins, petrochemicals and VOCs, but may offer some recycled content.
About IceStone
IceStone is the only durable surface to achieve Gold level Cradle to Cradle certification, given by McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC). This certification shows that IceStone’s company and products have passed stringent manufacturing standards that measure toxic ingredients, emissions levels, water and energy usage, renewable investments, on-going data collection systems and recyclability, as well as a code of corporate ethics and labor standards. The product is designed to replace mined stone counter-tops (such as marble or granite) or engineered stone (such as products made with quartz or other material, in a base of resin or petrochemical mix) and comes in 29 colors in a classic and Refined line. For more information, visit www.icestone.biz. * Green Building Materials: Making Cement, Insulation and Wood Products Increasingly Environmentally Friendly.
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