On Tuesday December 2, 2008, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities released its flagship Living Architecture Monitor magazine in an easy-to-access digital format to over 50,000 potential green roof and wall enthusiasts. The new publication will be ‘tree friendly’ and augment the printed copy of the quarterly publication, already distributed to over 5,000 industry professionals.
“The new format will save paper and energy”, said Steven Peck, President of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, “It will also provide our members and advertisers with lots of valuable new features such as video clips of products and instant on-line contacts.”
Other features include a sedum-plant roof to reduce heat and absorb rainfall, recycled and local building materials and radiant floor heating and cooling.
Graze the Roof, a fledgling garden project on top of the Glide Memorial Church's offices, was created by residents in a neighborhood known more for urban blight than fresh produce and green space. It's a partnership between Glide and Oakland nonprofit Bay Localize, which promotes edible rooftops and urban self-reliance. Such gardens are seen as an important, and largely untapped, opportunity to increase local food production. In addition to providing veggies for participants, the garden demonstrates to apartment dwellers that having a flat roof is all you need to grow good food.
Residents of over-populated and underprivileged areas like Dar El-Salam, Bab El-Shaeriya, Shubra, Saft El-Laban, some parts of Moqattam and Bolaq El-Daqrour have taken on this challenge with the double-edged benefit of cooling down their buildings and complementing their incomes with rooftop gardens, producing everything from cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce, to spinach and even strawberries.
Ralph Velasquez, director of sustainable technology for Tremco, a sustainability focused roofing company in Beachwood, Ohio, notes a growing desire for environmentally friendly roofing products as Americans become more conscious of their environmental impact. While popular in Europe for years, the green roof concept is just starting to catch on in America, and is taking off in larger cities. In fact, a recent study for the city of Chicago completed by Chicago, Illinois based Weston Design Consultants estimates that the greening of all of the city's rooftops would produce $100,000,000 in saved energy costs.
A three year PhD studentship involving elements of both soil science and plant physiology is available to investigate the properties of recycled green waste in mixture with mineral media as a substrate for green roofs. Further details of the project and facilities available are at: http://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/staff/vacancies/?type=ac
The National Park Service's parent agency, the U. S. Department of the Interior, recently completed a project with both literal and symbolic "green" benefits. Earlier this week, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced completion of a "green roof" on the 3rd wing of the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C.
Current Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne yesterday unveiled a green roof on a wing of the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C.
The nation's capital has a huge problem from storm runoff and sewer overflows, with more than half the city covered with paved or constructed surfaces. The vegetation and soil on the green roof will absorb rainwater and curb runoff, helping to protect the fragile Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Who says a temporary building has to be ugly or wasteful? Vector Architects have come up with an innovative eco-design for the CR Land Guanganmen Green Technology Showroom in Beijing, China. Their steel structure building features grass panels and a green roof with integrated irrigation systems. The building will be used for 3 years as one of the CR Land’s Residential projects.
The green roof expected to be approved today for the Target Center in Minneapolis represents a bet by city leaders that the arena will remain viable beyond the city's lease with the Timberwolves.
In recent months, the United Union of Roofers, Water Roofers and Allied Workers Local No. 11 have launched a campaign to establish roofers as the primary installers of green roof systems.
Sky Vegetables, will host a summit of industryleading specialists from around the world at the first-ever Building-Integrated Sustainable Agriculture (B-ISA) Summit on December 12th and 13th at the Durant Hotel, in Berkeley, California. More than 15 presenters, and 30 attendees are expected at this invitation-only, two-day event, with an expressed goal of developing a draft-design of an open source rooftop farm prototype and developing a strong network of support for the B-ISA Initiative. (from press release shown at above linked site)
AEG, the arena management for Minneapolis' Target Center, has announced plans for an environmentally friendly green roof designed by Kestrel Design Group.
To read more about developments in this story, see:
In a research project at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Watershed Research and Education Center, graduate student Channon Toland is studying the use of green roofs to control the storm water that now runs off of manmade structures. Working with Brian Haggard, director of the Arkansas Water Resources Center, and Mark Boyer, head of the department of landscape architecture, Toland built 15 mock green roofs at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Watershed Research and Education Center in Fayetteville.
When asked what she considered her greatest accomplishments in terms of environmental work, she pointed to her leadership on the green roof project on City Hall and the green roof planned for the Target Center, which will be the largest in the five-state area when completed. She was also instrumental in bringing a major conference on green roofs to Minneapolis in 2007 — the Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities conference.
Last weekend, they were on the roof of The Spectrum, a condo building in Falls Church that touts itself as environmentally friendly. The building’s sales manager, Deborah Condrey, was telling the Oumeras about the roof’s array of plants that require very little water. “All we’re missing is the cactus,” Hazim said.
His innovations included a green roof planted with succulents, and he's considering a pulley system to make raising the roof easier. He chose yellow cedar and redwood planks not just for their sturdiness, but for the patina. "I didn't want it to be something I had to maintain," he said. "This will gray out nicely."
Suddenly, green roofs are sprouting across North America. Designed to curb air pollution, decrease energy expenses and reduce storm runoff, the environmentally friendly assemblies are adding a decidedly earthy element to urban skylines — a sign that the green roof industry is rapidly coming into its own.
Proponents say green roofs offer benefits not just to the building they cover. Those include moderating stormwater run off, reducing the urban heat-island effect and reducing carbon dioxide, because the plants take it in as part of photosynthesis.
The good news is that there is a solution to this problem that offers benefits beyond cooling off a city. Earthen or “green” roofs can reduce the urban heat island effect by removing heat from the air. By absorbing heat and increasing insulation, they lower a building’s energy use and costs by reducing energy needed for heating and cooling. They also alleviate the strain on drain and sewer systems by reducing immediate water runoff, and clean the air by removing pollution and sequestering carbon. Not to mention they offer green space for city dwellers and many species, as well as a place to grow local produce.
