Climate change and the growing occurrence of severe weather phenomena are making people increasingly aware of environmental issues and of the need to find new development models, and this applies in particular to the world of construction. Tools such as energy certification of buildings, Passive House, Plus Energy Building and Sustainable Building are increasingly guiding the choices of designers and consumers.
One of the most advanced approaches to sustainable development is the life cycle assessment, which measures the impacts of products over their entire lifetime. In the LCA analysis of a range of surface covering materials for the building sector conducted by the University of Modena, porcelain tile topped the rankings.