Goldholme's Hooby Lane limestone is the most environmentally friendly building material when compared with bricks, reconstituted stone, timber, glass/steel and plastic cladding.

And Goldholme can prove it. They had their stone independently tested by Halletec Associates to find out.

We didn't give them any parameters to work to, Goldholme sales manager Roger Townend told NSS, and we were quite impressed when the stone came back with the best results. It's another piece of information to help people make informed decisions.

He and Goldholme owner Phil Kerry decided to have the comparative tests carried out because they became aware customers were talking about the environment.

People have become far more aware about the enviornment and quickly,says Phil. It's sprung out of the blue. A warm winter and everyone's talking about global warming. It's suddenly become a very hot subject. We thought it would be a very good idea to know where we stood.

We didn't have any idea at all just how good we would be. It was a real suprise to us to see we had by far the most environmentally friendly of materials.

Everyone thinks timber is best but that's not the case at all. Timber only lasts 30 years and you have to treat it with some environmentally horrible treatments several times during its life.

Of course, there is not much point knowing your stone is environmentally friendly if you don't tell anyone. And Phil is adept at making the most of publicity opportunities when he found flecks of gold in his stone from Hooby Lane he managed to get national press coverage, although there was nowhere near enough to make commercial extraction viable.

This time Goldholme have sent the results of the Halletec Associates research to RIBA architects and are also now supplying housebuilders with certificates highlighting the environmental benefits of stone for them to issue to customers who buy stone houses.

The certificate also points out that for every lorry-load of stone delivered, Goldholme have planted 10 trees, which Phil Kerry is in an ideal position to be able to do because he also owns a chain of plant nurseries.

We haven't actually worked it out, but it must make the stone walling about carbon neutral, if not actually producing a carbon gain, he says.

The Halletec report can be viewed on Goldholme's website.

(cn-stonenet.com)