Cambria Creates Sustainable Designs Made from Recycled Materials

Sustainability is at the forefront of our industry, and we are seeing recycled materials as a growing category. As an American-made (based in Le Sueur, Minnesota), family-owned company, we at Cambria are committed to the well-being of our customers, our team, our community, and the environment. We take tangible steps in our transportation, water usage, power generation, lighting design, tooling, and materials to help safeguard the land and its people for generations to come.

We are privileged to work with quartz, a unique and precious resource. This drives our sustainability efforts—informing our processes, infusing our products, and shaping our environmental and community stewardship. Beginning in our company-owned mine and continuing through processing, we employ sustainable best practices in our operations and encourage our partners to do the same.

These designs contain pre-consumer recycled content certified by SCS Global Services. They are produced from repurposed material from our production and fabrication process that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

Recycled Designs

Leading the way is Brittanicca Block, which contains 99% recycled content. It features our distinct Brittanicca™ design in parallel lines with unique veining, patterns, and tonality set against a milky white background.

Comparatively, the bold yet never overbearing Buxton, containing 59% recycled content, depicts an industrial, grainy concrete foundation intermixed with daubs of gray and cream and a constellation of white speckles.

In The Coordinates Collection™ (Gensler product design consultant), we introduced Sanibel Shoreline and Big Sur Mist designs, each of which contains 27% recycled content. Sanibel Shoreline has a pearl-gray base with intermittent black dots, pale white silhouettes, and warm specks, like shells dotting wet sand.

Inspired by the cliffs and fog on the southern coast of California, Big Sur Mist features both large and small dove-gray shapes mixed with neutral undertones.

Each of these sustainable designs is just as easy to live with as it is to love.

Sustainability in Design

Our commitment to the environment shows in everything we do, from choosing eco-friendly shipping materials and watering our grounds from a drainage pond, to taking care of our equipment and reusing materials. And Cambria surfaces have the certifications to support our dedication to these values.

Cambria has achieved GREENGUARD and GREENGUARD Gold certification by UL Environment; is listed in the Health Product Declaration Collaborative (HPD) v2.1 Public Repository; uses a Declare label for its products; is compliant with the International Living Future Institute’s Living Building Challenge (LBC), a green building certification program and sustainable design framework that visualizes the ideal for the built environment; proudly participates in mindful MATERIALS, a design industry initiative that provides a free common platform for manufacturers to clearly communicate transparency and sustainability information for their building products; and is NSF-51 certified as safe for use as a food preparation surface in food zones, splash zones, and nonfood zones, meaning Cambria is safe to come into direct contact with food.

We strive to minimize our impact on the environment, to be transparent about the ingredients we use, and to create a product that will last a lifetime. The Declare label, developed by the International Living Future Institute, indicates that we voluntarily disclose where our products come from, what they are made of, and where they go at the end of their life. Cambria quartz surfaces are included in the mindful MATERIALS library, where product sustainability information is compiled to help industry professionals make informed purchase decisions.

Shop Smarter

In 2018, we launched our luxury retail accessories collection, Cambria Life + Style, which includes lazy Susans, charcuterie boards, coasters, cheeseboards, and more, all made from recycled Cambria materials in a variety of Cambria designs.

Located in close proximity to our manufacturing facilities, a fabrication facility processes any unused Cambria for reuse. A portion of excess material is reused in Cambria recycled products and in the Life+Style retail products, like bookends and coasters, and the remainder is repurposed for community road materials and other construction needs.

Cambria Life + Style continuously releases new accessories and tabletop items, providing shoppers with an accessible way to own a piece of the Cambria lifestyle, even if they are not in the market for new countertops. All pieces are featured in Cambria’s exclusive quartz designs and possess Cambria’s trademark scratch- and stain-resistant qualities to make them as functional as they are elegant.

Cambria’s Life+Style products are available for purchase in the online store and in select Cambria galleries.

[Updated on 12/05/2023]