IceStone
Healing the Home
“RSF has enabled IceStone to buy equipment and provide working capital to expand our capacities to meet growing market demand. To receive this support from a financial service enterprise that is onboard with our long-term social, environmental, and financial goals is an honor.”
According to the author of Home Safe Home, Debra Lynn Dadd, our greatest exposure to toxins is in our homes and comes from products we use on a daily basis. “Some of the worst are our paints, carpets, and furniture,” she says. “They’re large entities so we’re exposed to many chemicals at the same time.”* Fortunately for many of today’s consumers, an increasing number of companies, both builders and suppliers, are entering the “green building” field.
These companies use sustainable and recycled materials, and develop ways to reduce energy and water consumption. From dust-free plasters to bamboo flooring to roof gardens, green builders also strive to create healthy living spaces using non-toxic alternatives to conventional building products. One such company is IceStone, which makes durable surfaces such as countertops, floors, and wall coverings from recycled glass and concrete.
Thanks to a guarantee community that formed around IceStone, RSF was able to finance this innovative New York-based company’s next growth phase.
IceStone’s environmental impact includes replacing petrochemical and polyester resin based materials which produces harmful volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), a major source of indoor air pollution. Another is reducing the dependence on imported mined natural stone, 85% of which is imported from other countries and requires a tremendous amount of fossil fuel to reach U.S. customers. Last but not least, IceStone extracted 1.2 million pounds of glass from the waste stream in 2005 and expects to remove more each year.
To become at investor at RSF to support social enterprises that promote environmental, social, and economic sustainability, please go to our “Social Investment Fund” page for more information.
*Thorne, Lynn. 2006. “Color Me Greeniful,” The Washington Post (March 3). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022401461.html.
Photo: ©ICESTONE
Saturday, March 31st, 2007