Green Roofing 101 - Looking at the Orgins of Green Roofs
Green roofs is an emerging trend for the 21st century A.D. Few know that the installation of green roofs has a long history, with roofs dating as far back as 7th century B.C. Simply stated, a "green roof" is the roof of a structure that is partially or completely blanketed with vegetation. There are many potential benefits with a green roof, including: air quality improvement, temperature regulation, reduction of storm water run off, improved building performance, habitat and ecological benefits. Although there are many benefits, there are many challenges or barriers as well. These include the following: availability of local resources, identification of practical vegetation solutions, availability of irrigation water, structural limitations of buildings, compliance with regional building codes and cost considerations.
Aside from some of the challenges mentioned above, I feel the bigger challenge is the integration of two very different disciplines; namely horticulture with building sciences. The professional roofing contractors that represent the building sciences side of things, have the experience and knowledge base that deals with all aspects of roofing. They understand the roofing industry and most importantly the potential liabilities. This is an important point that we always come back to in our training courses. This technology may be green but it is still roofing. This undisputable fact is why we feel it is important to ensure that the green roofing industry model is always consistent with the roofing industry model.
This said, however, how many roofing contractors are comfortable dealing with growth medium or plant analysis, microclimates, irrigation systems or working with perishableproducts and the associated maintenance requirements for long term success? This is where the other professional needs to be engaged so we can take advantage of their expertise. Landscape contractors and landscape architects / designers are the other piece of the puzzle we need to help drive the practical use of the technology. One of the rewarding things we experience at the end of one of our training courses is when the landscape professionals and the roofing professionals exchange business cards. They do so with a level of confidence that each of them understands the important role of the other and this important collaboration for the success of the industry can begin.
Standards for green roofing are still developing and until the market moves from a niche market to more of a standard construction practice we will need to do our best to educate potential clients on not only the benefits of green roofing, but the best management practices that must be outlined and in place for a successful long term strategy; a strategy that will tear down the barriers and enable us to use this technology to its fullest potential with all of the risks being managed by industry professionals.
Greg Garner has been installing roof membranes and green roof systems for over seven years and has over 15 combined years in the landscaping and roofing contracting businesses. Greg also has invented and commercialized several patent pending technologies currently being used in the green roof and living wall industries - ELT EasyGreen.
