Green Roofs

All quotes and pics from www.worldchanging.com...

In this day and age of soaring energy prices and environmental degredation there are some "no-brainer" ideas for reducing our impact on our local environment(and saving money in the long run to boot), one of these things is something called a "green roof". I know how it sounds like, yet before you judge check out some of these pictures.



Here is a pic of Val Thermal Baths in Switzerland.



Palais Omnisports in Paris-Bercy



Ford Motor Company's Rouge Manufacturing Plant in Dearborn, Michigan

Here is the benefits of Green Roofs.

# Providing amenity space for building users ó replacing a yard or patio
# Increasing roof life span
# Reducing storm water run off
# Providing noise insulation
# Filtering pollutants and CO2 out of the air
# Providing locally grown food (with roof-top vegetable gardens)
# Increasing wildlife habitat in built up areas
# Reducing heating (by adding mass and thermal resistance value) and cooling (by evaporative cooling) loads on a building
# Reducing the urban heat island effect

And here is an artists conception of NY,NY full of green roofs.



Check out the link at the start of this thread for more indepth description and additional links.

Also here is something called Organic Concrete check it out!

www.worldchanging.com...




[edit on 14-11-2005 by sardion2000]

It actually works well. We have a flat roof on our Eichler and toyed with the idea, but with 4 inches of foam, we put money into more efficent applainces. I thought they were considering such a thing for the WTC replacements?

I wonder how easily these can be refitted for older buildings?

Great find though

One thing we have always tried in pricipal to do is be 'Carbon Neutral" so we donate moeny to groups that plant trees and purchase land in an around the Bay Area that is set aside as permant green belt. FOr about 9 dollars more a month we also ensure that our percentage of electricty use from out city owned utiltiy comes from renewable sources

[edit on 11/14/05 by FredT]

I like it .

Hopefully some cities make these mandatory in the future.

Here is a artists rendition of a building built with plants and grasses firmly in mind.

www.worldchanging.com...

One thing we have always tried in pricipal to do is be 'Carbon Neutral" so we donate moeny to groups that plant trees and purchase land in an around the Bay Area that is set aside as permant green belt. FOr about 9 dollars more a month we also ensure that our percentage of electricty use from out city owned utiltiy comes from renewable sources

What's the crown cover in your area?

[edit on 14-11-2005 by sardion2000]

here is a video I found that has some pretty good information on green roofs..
I think this is a great idea! Funny I just now happened upon this... Everyone should do this!

I think those are fairly common in many european country houses. Makes perfect sense on many levels. Only downside I could see is having to mow the roof and perhaps some more bugs in the house. But a roomba type mower should be able to handle it.

reply to post by jpm1602


Imagine telling your friends you can't go play golf because you have to mow your roof!? LOL

And yes bugs, I have a solution for that, breed jumping spiders!

ROFL EUS!
Hey Fred, wanna go bowling? Naw, I gotta water the roof. I bet it could save 1000's of dollars a year in heating and cooling.

[edit on 21-3-2008 by jpm1602]

You use sedum for green roofs, their roots are very shallow so don't need alot of weighty soil like grass does and you don't have to cut it.

They are good at collecting rainwater which is needed as block paving is trying to take over the world !!

Sedum roof that OP posted
www.worldchanging.com...


www.dunedincanmore.org.uk...

Chicago has regulations encouraging green roofs. The savings in heating/cooling costs are what make sense to developers, and stormwater management is what makes sense to municipal engineers.

Cities are mostly impermeable surfaces: cement doesn't soak up water like soil. So when it rains, a lot of water running off rooftops goes right into the sewer system in a short time, rather than gradually filtering through soil. In big rains, this means a lot of cities have to dump untreated water directly into rivers. Combined with greywater systems that use rainwater for things like flushing toilets, green roofs can do a lot to help manage this.