Energy and environmental analysis of marble productive sites: «by phases» and «by single process» combined approach

The approach on which the in force Community eco-label scheme of marble relies (EU Decision 607/2009) is questioned, as a contribution to the on-going revision process of the associated ecological criteria. An alternative approach able to provide a more realistic image of the marble producing site’s energy and environmental performances is also argued. The proposed approach considers the marble production in terms not only of life cycle phases (as the Decision does) but of unit operations and/or machineries (as the typical assessment methodologies of production processes do). An application of this proposal on a marble producing site located in Sicily.