Founded in 1992, Jianming Stone Group has set out on a course to improve its processes for stone production, including becoming “green.” The company, located in Xiamen, China, has recently installed a new water filtration system at its plant to help improve operations and the environment. “I understand how important the environment is and how we must take care of it,” said Josh Zhang, general manager of Jianming Stone Group. “A lot of Chinese companies don’t care about the environment. The government used to not care, but they are slowly getting more serious about the environment. Secondly, we understand that most of our customers are from America and American companies like to be green. They want to work with companies that are green. We do it to help build those relationships with customers. I originally got the idea of going green from the MIA+BSI: [The Natural Stone Institute]. I think it is a good idea because we care about the environment and we invest in the facilities that care about the environment.”
The company’s new water filtration system not only reduces expense, but it proves beneficial in the stone production process. “In the past, if we used the old system to recycle, it took a lot of time for the water to come back clean and sometimes the water wouldn’t even be clean enough,” said Zhang. “Now we have more clean water and more consistently clean water. If you don’t have clean enough water, you would have to pay the government to remove the sludge in the water. So this process in the long run will also help us save money. We like to look toward the future and look for how we can save money in the future.”