Cosentino, one of the world's leading stone manufacturers, is redefining the industry with its unwavering commitment to sustainable surfaces; and their flagship product, Dekton® by Cosentino, is a carbon-neutral marvel leading the charge. We sat down with Itay Shimony, Cosentino's Oceania VP, to discuss the brand's commitment to innovation, achieving success through values – and how they're inspiring change in the architecture and design industry.
You have been with Cosentino for over two decades. You helped establish the operations in Israel, oversaw the fabrication business in the US, and now you’re heading up the brand’s activity in this region. You must have seen the concept of sustainability shift over those years.
Well, at first it sounded a bit like a magic trick. Exciting, but not something people really cared about. That's definitely changed – some places more than others, of course – but here, in Australia and New Zealand, sustainability is definitely front of mind.
In fact, when we meet with our Australian partners and clients, we always start with the topic of sustainability, rather than our product. And that says something. That’s one of the reasons this market is so exciting for us – it really responds to what we’re trying to achieve.
I’m sure Dekton® is a big part of these conversations. As the only carbon-neutral product in its category, Dekton® is taking Australia by storm. Some of the most high profile projects – like the new Sydney Airport and the Powerhouse Museum – will feature it prominently. What makes it so special?
To understand Dekton®, you really have to understand Cosentino as a brand because this product is both the culmination of everything we've been working towards for the past 30 years, and the future of our organisation.
Cosentino is a family-owned business, which started way back when the founders, originally from Sicily, decided to make a leap across the Mediterranean. They landed in Spain, where they got involved with natural stone. That's where our CEO, a visionary man, had a real epiphany – he saw all the waste generated from quarrying natural stone, and knew that there had to be a better, more sustainable way, to utilise these resources.
That's what sparked the development of our first engineered stone products. We took all that leftover material from natural stone quarries, combined it with pigments and resins, and we had a groundbreaking new material – a stepping stone on the path to what would eventually become Dekton®. Fast forward a few years, and we decided to push the boundaries even further. We wanted to create a product that captured the best aspects of both natural and manmade stone. And that's how Dekton® was born – stunning resin-free ultra-compact porcelain surface with unmatched durability.
How does Dekton® achieve its cradle-to-grave carbon neutrality?
Sustainability underpins everything we do. Dekton® is manufactured with 100% renewable electricity and 99% recycled water (with zero discharge to lakes and rivers) at a state-of-the-art factory in a rural area of Southern Spain. However, an essential aspect of achieving Dekton’s cradle-to-grave carbon neutrality is our ability to recycle 100% of the production waste. How do we do that? Everything that comes out of the manufacturing process can be remade into something else – like another countertop – and so these second-generation materials become recycled materials for Dekton®, which in essence makes it both carbon neutral and recycled.
What’s more, in some European markets, and even at our own factory, we take used Dekton® countertops and crush them up into raw materials, which we then use to make our Silestone products, some of which are also carbon neutral. So again, Dekton® becomes a raw material for other products.
What about Dekton’s end-of-life here in Australia?
Because of our EPD commitment, we have to calculate what it means to ship old Dekton® from Australia all the way back to Spain. Right now that calculation shows it actually creates more emissions than it saves through recycling. So, our focus is local solutions. We're working on turning it into furniture, things like coasters and decorative pieces. Customers can also crush it into gravel as long as it meets regulations, since it's so resin-free and low silica.
It’s clear that Cosentino was born from the very notion of sustainable innovation, and Dekton® is a testament to this unwavering, ingenious approach. How is this ambition manifesting through the rest of the operations?
Alongside our efforts to recycle 100% of our waste back into our production, we’re making robust investments into our water treatment facilities, to ensure we can recycle all of it, too. Despite being in a dry region of Spain, and using the amount of water comparable to major cities – like Miami – we recycle 99% of it and 1% evaporates. That means, there’s no discharge going into rivers or lakes.
In addition, in our factories in Spain and Brazil, 100% of the electrical energy is generated from renewable sources certified with Guarantee of Origin (GoO).
What about the governance?
It’s just as important. We're a global company with over 6000 employees from over 60 different nationalities. Our workforce is close to 50% women, and our next CEO will likely be a woman, too. We're about equality, celebrating diversity, and changing markets – it's the Cosentino DNA. This also extends to responsible material sourcing – we work hard to combat things like the issues covered in the Australian anti-slavery act, and ensure that the quarries we source from protect workers, don't harm children, and restore the environment.
And let's not forget social responsibility. Our factory in Spain is located in a remote area, and the surrounding villages rely heavily on Cosentino for their livelihood. Generations of families have built their lives around our company, and we're committed to supporting those communities – we take that responsibility very seriously.
It’s all part of the big picture and our ambition to eliminate emissions and reach carbon neutrality for everything we produce by 2030. That's our ultimate goal – to become a closed-loop system, where we create all the raw materials we use.
There is no doubt that Cosentino is leading by example and demonstrating that a business can do the right thing by prioritising a comprehensive ESG strategy – and remain profitable. As a leader in this area, what’s your advice for the broader Australian A&D community?
While we certainly don’t ask architects, designers and specifiers to exclusively choose Cosentino, we ask for one thing: always keep ESG front of mind, and write carbon neutrality into your spec sheets. Just by incorporating this wording into the specifications process, we push the whole industry to invest in sustainability.
We're one of the biggest stone manufacturers globally and we feel a responsibility to lead by example and show that there's a more sustainable way. We want to change the construction industry, reduce pollution and waste. We’re not interested in market domination – we’re interested in designing a better world for everyone, together.
Even if we lose a project, it’s a win because the architect specified a sustainable product, pushing for greener outcomes. That’s the ultimate goal we’re working towards.
