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Against the backdrop of the global green development wave, the stone industry, as a crucial part of the architectural decoration sector, is undergoing a profound transformation from “traditional production” to “green and low-carbon”. Century Star (Official Website: https://www.hcenturystar.com/), a foreign trade enterprise specializing in the export of stone products, is rooted in Shuitou, a core area of the stone industry. It has always closely followed the orientation of China’s green stone policies, strictly aligned with European and American sustainable standards, and established itself as a green benchmark among Chinese foreign trade enterprises in the international market with high-quality and low-energy-consuming stone products.

I. China’s Green Requirements for the Stone Industry: Building a Full-Chain Regulatory System from Policy to Practice

In recent years, guided by the “dual carbon” goals, the Chinese government has issued a series of policies and regulations. Covering green certification, industrial transformation, and local practices, these measures have defined the “red lines” and “blueprints” for the green development of the stone industry, and also provided a clear compliance direction for Century Star’s product production and export.

(I) Green Product Certification: The “Green Pass” for the Stone Industry

In September 2025, the State Administration for Market Regulation released the 5th batch of the Implementation Rules for Green Product Certification, formally incorporating mainstream stone categories such as natural marble, granite, and artificial stone into the mandatory hierarchical certification system. The certification is based on GB/T 44178-2024 Green Product Evaluation – Stone, which establishes strict evaluation standards from four core dimensions: resources, environment, quality, and low carbon — this also serves as the core basis for Century Star to select suppliers and control product quality.

In terms of resource utilization, the standard clearly stipulates that the fresh water consumption per unit of natural stone products should be ≤ 0.200 m³/m², and the waste disposal rate must reach 100%. In its supply chain management, Century Star gives priority to cooperating with factories that adopt “full waste recycling” technology, ensuring that all cooperative enterprises can achieve “zero waste discharge” and fully meet the national standards for resource utilization.

The requirements in the environmental emission dimension directly address the “pain points” of stone production — the particulate matter concentration in the workshop work area should be ≤ 8.0 mg/m³ for marble and limestone, and ≤ 1.0 mg/m³ for granite and sandstone; at the same time, the radionuclide content of stone must comply with the safety standards of internal exposure index (IRa) ≤ 1.0 and external exposure index (γ) ≤ 1.3. To ensure compliance, Century Star has established a “dual inspection” mechanism: on the one hand, it requires suppliers to provide third-party environmental testing reports; on the other hand, before the delivery of each batch of products, the company’s laboratory will conduct additional sampling tests on particulate matter emissions and radioactive indicators, ensuring that there is no need to worry about environmental compliance issues when the products are transported to European and American ports.

In the quality and low-carbon dimensions, the national standard requires that the processing utilization rate of natural stone should be ≥ 80%, and all certified products must provide a complete carbon footprint report. By optimizing the order production plan and adopting the “on-demand cutting” model to reduce processing waste, Century Star has stabilized the product utilization rate at over 85%; at the same time, it has collaborated with third-party institutions to calculate the carbon emissions of products throughout their life cycle (from mining to port transportation), forming a visual carbon footprint report to provide low-carbon certification for products entering the European and American markets.

Stone products that have obtained green product certification are not only the “preferred choice” for government procurement and green building projects in China, but also serve as a “passport” for Century Star to enter the international market — currently, more than 80% of the company’s exported products have obtained the Chinese Green Product Mark, and the certification certificate has become an important basis for proving the environmental friendliness of products when negotiating with European and American customers.

(II) Industrial Transformation Goals: Promoting the Stone Industry towards “High-Quality and Sustainable” Development

The Work Plan for Stabilizing Growth in the Building Materials Industry (2025-2026) jointly issued by six ministries and commissions including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has listed the stone industry as a “key link in resource consumption and carbon emissions” and put forward three clear transformation goals, pointing out the direction for the long-term development of Century Star.

Waste resource utilization is one of the core policy goals: the plan requires that the stone waste utilization rate be increased to more than 90% by 2026, while the current average utilization rate in the domestic industry is only about 40%. In response to this requirement, Century Star has introduced “stone waste recycling production lines” in its cooperative factories, processing the originally discarded stone powder into artificial stone matrices. This not only reduces solid waste emissions, but also provides customers with more cost-effective artificial stone products. For example, in a batch of artificial quartz stone exported to Germany, the proportion of recycled stone powder in the product reaches 35%, which not only complies with China’s waste utilization policies, but also meets the European Union’s requirements for recycled materials, achieving dual benefits.

The improvement of mining mechanization rate is the key to reducing mine pollution and improving efficiency: the plan proposes that the mechanization rate of large and medium-sized stone mines should be increased from 50% to more than 70% by 2025. When selecting mine suppliers, Century Star gives priority to cooperating with enterprises that adopt “static crushing” and “intelligent mining” technologies, ensuring that the cooperative mines have high mining efficiency and minimal damage to the ecological environment, with a 100% green compliance rate, fully meeting China’s green mine construction standards.

Green mine construction controls the environmental attributes of stone from the source: the plan requires that the green compliance rate of large and medium-sized stone mines should exceed 80% by 2025, with the core principle of “restoring while mining”. All mine enterprises cooperating with Century Star strictly follow this requirement, carrying out ecological restoration simultaneously during the mining process and planting local drought-tolerant vegetation. The green restoration area of some mines has reached 60% of the mining area, and their environmental practices have been included in the company’s Green Supply Chain Report, serving as important materials to demonstrate the strength of “China’s green mines” to European and American customers.

(III) Shuitou’s Practices: The “Benchmark Model” for Green Stone Production

As a core area of China’s stone industry, Shuitou has actively responded to the national green development policies. Through policy guidance, technological support, and standard constraints, it has promoted the transformation and upgrading of local stone enterprises, forming a replicable and promotable green production model, and also provided solid support for Century Star to optimize its supply chain and enhance the green attributes of its products.

In terms of waste resource utilization, Shuitou has issued special support policies to encourage enterprises to build stone waste comprehensive utilization projects. Currently, dozens of enterprises in the region have built large-scale waste treatment production lines. Through technologies such as crushing, grinding, and molding, cutting scraps and stone powder are converted into artificial stone raw materials, permeable bricks, roadbed materials, etc., with the waste utilization rate of some enterprises exceeding 95%. Relying on Shuitou’s mature waste treatment industry chain, Century Star has established in-depth cooperation with a number of local waste comprehensive utilization enterprises, ensuring that the stone raw materials purchased by the company all come from the “waste recycling” system. This not only reduces the carbon footprint of products from the source, but also meets the requirements for the use of recycled materials at home and abroad.

Production environment governance is another focus of the green transformation of Shuitou’s stone industry. The local government has invested special funds to promote enterprises to transform their production workshops and introduce high-efficiency dust collection systems and wastewater recycling devices. At present, all large-scale stone enterprises in Shuitou have realized centralized dust collection and treatment, with the particulate matter emission concentration in the workshop far lower than the national standard; the wastewater recycling rate generally reaches more than 90%, and some leading enterprises have even achieved “zero wastewater discharge”. The cooperative factories of Century Star in Shuitou are all equipped with industry-leading environmental protection equipment. Among them, a cooperative factory has a dust collection rate of 98% and a wastewater reuse rate of 96%, reducing fresh water consumption by 30,000 tons annually. Its environmental indicators not only comply with Chinese requirements, but also meet the strict standards for production process environmental protection in the EU CE-CPR Directive.

In addition, Shuitou has actively built an “industry-university-research” cooperation platform, joining hands with universities and scientific research institutions to develop green production technologies for the stone industry. For example, the “low-energy stone cutting technology” jointly developed by local enterprises and universities can reduce energy consumption in the processing link by 20%; the “stone carbon footprint accounting system” can accurately calculate the carbon emissions of products throughout their life cycle, providing enterprises with low-carbon production solutions. Century Star has actively introduced these advanced technologies and applied them in product production and carbon footprint accounting, further enhancing the green competitiveness of its products and laying a technical foundation for exports to the European and American markets.

II. Century Star: Aligning with International Standards to Build Core Competitiveness in Green Exports

As a foreign trade enterprise rooted in Shuitou, Century Star is well aware that “compliance” is the prerequisite for entering the international market, and “green development” is the key to winning the trust of customers. Based on China’s green stone policies and with international standards such as the EU CE-CPR Directive as the goal, the company has relied on Shuitou’s mature green stone industry chain to build a full-process green management system covering “procurement – production – testing – export”, ensuring that its products comply with both domestic standards and European and American sustainable requirements.

(I) Fully Complying with the EU CE-CPR Directive: Comprehensive Compliance from Carbon Footprint to Traceability

The EU Construction Products Regulation (CE-CPR), which came into effect in January 2025, has put forward more stringent sustainability requirements for stone products. Relying on China’s green policy practices and Shuitou’s industrial advantages, Century Star has achieved 100% compliance of its products with the new regulations.

In terms of carbon footprint disclosure, the CE-CPR requires stone products to disclose the carbon footprint throughout their life cycle (from mining to end application), and the data must be verified by a third party. With the help of Shuitou’s “stone carbon footprint accounting system”, Century Star has collaborated with authoritative institutions such as SGS to calculate the life-cycle carbon emissions of mainstream products (such as natural marble and artificial quartz stone), forming detailed carbon footprint reports. Taking the natural marble exported to France as an example, the report covers the fuel consumption in the mining stage, the electricity consumption in the processing stage, and the logistics carbon emissions in the transportation stage. All data have been verified by internationally recognized third parties, allowing customers to directly use them for the carbon footprint statistics of their construction projects, greatly enhancing the competitiveness of the products.

In terms of recycled material ratio, the CE-CPR has added requirements for the proportion of recycled materials in concrete, stone, and other materials (e.g., the proportion of recycled aggregates in concrete should be ≥ 30%). Relying on Shuitou’s waste recycling industry chain, Century Star has increased the proportion of recycled stone powder in artificial stone production to 35%, which not only far exceeds the EU requirements, but also reduces the cost of raw materials. In the first quarter of 2025, the order volume of recycled stone powder artificial stone exported by the company to Italy increased by 45% year-on-year, with customers feedback that “the products meet environmental requirements and have price advantages”.

The Digital Product Passport (DPP) is another key focus of the CE-CPR, which requires the integration of technical documents, Environmental Product Declarations (EPD), supply chain information, etc., to achieve full-process traceability. Century Star has developed an exclusive “Digital Product Passport System”. By scanning the QR code on the product packaging, customers can view the Chinese Green Product Certification Certificate of the product, the third-party carbon footprint report, the mine mining license, the environmental testing data during the processing process, and other information, fully complying with the EU’s “traceability” requirements. Currently, this system has been applied to all products exported to the EU, with a customer satisfaction rate of 98%.

In addition, all stone products exported by Century Star to the EU have passed the performance tests (such as mechanical strength and fire resistance) and environmental assessments conducted by EU certification institutions, and are shipped only after affixing the CE mark, ensuring that there are no compliance risks during customs clearance. Since 2025, the customs clearance efficiency of the company’s stone products exported to the EU has increased by 20%, and there has been no detention due to compliance issues.

(II) Building Long-Term Export Advantages with Green Development as the Core

Century Star has always believed that green development is not a “cost burden”, but a “core competitiveness”. The company has integrated China’s green stone requirements and Shuitou’s green industrial practices into its daily operations, forming a complete green management system covering supplier selection, production process control, and customer service:

With this system, Century Star has not only won the trust of European and American customers, but also gained industry recognition — in 2025, the company was selected as a “China Green Demonstration Enterprise for Stone Export”, and its products are sold to more than 30 countries and regions including the EU, the United States, and the Middle East, establishing a good image of “China’s green stone” in the international market.

III. Future Outlook: Relying on Shuitou’s Advantages to Lead the Global Sustainable Stone Market

As the global attention to sustainable development continues to increase, China’s green stone policies will be further deepened, and the environmental requirements of the European and American markets will become more stringent. Century Star will continue to be guided by China’s policies, rely on the green development advantages of Shuitou’s stone industry, and take international standards as the goal to continuously optimize the green supply chain and enhance the environmental attributes of its products:

On the one hand, the company plans to strengthen cooperation with Shuitou’s “industry-university-research” platforms, introduce more advanced technologies such as “intelligent mining” and “low-carbon processing”, and jointly develop new stone waste recycling technologies. It aims to increase the product waste utilization rate to more than 95% by 2026, exceeding the target of China’s Work Plan for Stabilizing Growth in the Building Materials Industry; on the other hand, it will further improve the Digital Product Passport System, integrate more green practice data of Shuitou’s industry, and better meet the traceability requirements of the EU and other international markets.

Century Star (Official Website: https://www.hcenturystar.com/) has always believed that on the path of green development, only by relying on China’s policy support and Shuitou’s industrial advantages and keeping up with international standards can it gain a firm foothold in the fierce international competition. In the future, the company will continue to practice China’s green stone requirements, deeply cultivate Shuitou’s green stone industry chain, provide more environmentally friendly and high-quality stone products for global customers, and become an important bridge connecting China’s green stone industry with the international market.