What’s GPW? I’m starting a new blog feature here on Sky Gardens ~ where cool green meets lofty blue, to go along with Greenroofs.com’s “Greenroof/Greenwall Project of the Week” – or GPW. I’ll note back stories for each selected project and include updates, new photos, etc., and share why I feel this is a noteworthy and interesting case study.
Also known as Millennium Water, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Village at Southeast False Creek (SEFC) will eventually become home to 16,000 residents and commercial users after the Winter Games with 250 affordable housing units in its first phase, a 45,000 square foot community center, three child care centers, an elementary school, community garden, public plaza, and much more. The 32 hectare (80 acres) SEFC community is a former industrial site on the shores of False Creek near downtown Vancouver, B.C. More than half of the land is owned by the City, while the remainder is owned privately.
Millennium Development Corporation developed the $1-billion-plus waterfront property, and the master plan for the sustainable community provided a unique opportunity to develop an urban center for residential, commercial and public use. The City of Vancouver is to be recognized as a governmental trailblazer and recommended for dictating 50% greenroof coverage for the entire area!
Dubbed “The most sustainable neighbourhood on Earth,” on Tuesday the Olympic Village in Vancouver’s Southeast False Creek was awarded LEED® Platinum ND certification by the U.S. Green Building Council for a variety of factors, including its proximity to the downtown core, mix of uses, affordable housing, green buildings and habitat restoration. And the Canadian Green Building Council announced the Gold certification of all residential buildings on the Millennium Water site.
”This should be a source of pride for residents and an example to the rest of the world.” ~ Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson
Back in 2007 our Design Editor, Haven Kiers, and I included the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Village (Millennium Water) in our inaugural Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof Design, as a current example of trendsetting sustainability efforts on a city scale. We showed it as an example of the #1 category on our 2007 list for ”Visionary Proposed Projects” - see the PowerPoint here. NATIONAL, Millennium Development’s public relations firm, provided these images of the various models for our presentation and the profile in The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database.
Last October at the inaugural 2009 CitiesAlive! World Green Roof Infrastructure Congress in Toronto, I attended Dr. Karen Liu of Xero Flor Canada’s presentation, “Special Green Roof Projects in B.C.” where she shared the company’s design and engineering experiences for their part in the Olympic Village’s extensive greenroofs. In the Master Planting Plan (see below) the landscape architect, Durante Kreuk, had created vegetated silhouettes of Olympic sports figures atop the buildings, so to achieve this, a combination of various planted Sedum plugs, annuals and lightweight red lava rock were used. Shallow aluminum edging helps define the different color and plant zones:
To update the profile, I relied on the excellent case study by The Challenge Series entitled “Millennium Water: The Southeast False Creek Olympic Village - Vancouver, Canada.” The story of the development is told in a seven-chapter book that documents the decisions and challenges involved in creating such a showcase and world-class example of green development strategies. You can access the entire book online above, order printed copies, or subscribe to their newsletter. Referring to the recent LEED awards, Roger Bayley of The Challenge Series stated:
“This esteemed certification reflects the dedication to sustainable community development that is found throughout the Millennium Water: SEFC community, and is a truly commendable achievement for all those who were a part of the planning, design and construction process.” ~ Roger Bayley
Of course Vanouver has many beautiful greenroofs and greenwalls, and just one of numerous other great buildings with a spectacular greenroof not to be missed is the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project, which we’ve previously highlighted as our “Greenroof Project of the Week.”
Completed just last November, 2009, it will be interesting to see how the Olympic Village rooftop vegetation fills in and greens up after a few seasons, and we certainly look forward to visiting this beautiful city with many eco-friendly projects in November, 2010.
Kudos to the people of Vancouver, B.C. and all involved in the many years of making the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Village at Southeast False Creek a wonderful, welcoming place for the athletes, officials, and visitors, and for designing Millennium Water as a future sustainable home to Vancouverites!
As we continue to ring in 2010 we hope you enjoyed warm holidays with family and friends and celebrated the New Year with renewed hope for the future. Can you believe we’ve entered a new decade? Shall we call it 2K10, Twenty Ten, or just good old fashioned 2,010? In any case, we’re finally out of the 0’s, now we’re into the 10’s.
Our world economy has been through a lot in the past few years, yet with a promising light hovering just over the horizon. Although development overall has declined, there is continued desire for green buildings from both the public and private sector, and in general our greenroof & greenwall industry has weathered quite nicely. Many of us are taking time to reflect on this passage of time and make New Year’s resolutions (another topic altogether!), and I was thinking of how far we have come since the German experience entered our architectural radar and into our collective consciousness in the 1990’s. Literally thousands of vegetated roofs and walls have been constructed since then in every continent except for Antarctica, with ever growing support from forward thinking multidisciplinary professionals: designers, government officials, organizations, companies, universities, students and other advocates looking to make Earth a little more sustainable.
Sadly, one of those special, innovative people passed away last November 27, the indomitable architect Malcolm Wells. Regarded as “the father of modern earth-sheltered architecture,” he was a staunch advocate of living architecture, known for his way ahead-of-the-times underground earth designs with living roofs starting in the 1960’s, see just one example below. He leaves a legacy of what he referred to as gentle architecture, design that would, in his own words, “leave the land no worse than you found it.”
The visionary Malcolm Wells' design for an eco-gas station, from MalcolmWells.com.
Many inspirational people and organizations have contributed to our current market, and I want to highlight just a few success stories from the past year, personal and global. So in my review, here are my favorite 2009 Top 10 Milestones and Accomplishments for both Greenroofs.com as a company and our international community as a whole:
10) In 2009 Greenroofs.com celebrated 10 years of being in business! We’ve seen a lot of progress and change for the good here as well as across the greenroof world. The fledgling Greenroofs.com – “exploring the ecology of organic greenroof architecture” started out as 60+ pages in 1999 as the result of an independent research study I did at the University of Georgia.
By 2003 we changed our format and grew into Greenroofs.com – “the international greenroof industry’s resource and online information portal,” and contained 600+ pages at the end of 2009 (not counting the hundreds of .php pages from The Greenroof Directory or The Greenroof Projects Database). At present, each month Greenroofs.com receives more than 160,000 unique visits and about 400,000 page views, and we’ve also expanded our presence in social marketing, too, so now you can stay connected with us on: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, eNewsletter (our monthly eNewsletter consists of 10,000 opt-in subscribers) & YouTube, as well as our Blog.
9) The proliferation of living architecture is greatly spreading and permeating into the areas of design, policy, research and education through numerousworld conferences, congresses, expos, trainings, tours, and other events. For example, the World Green Infrastructure Network (WGIN) – formerly the World Green Roof Infrastructure Network (WGRIN) - held its first CitiesAlive! World Green Roof Congress in Toronto, Canada, with the second scheduled for Mexico City this October, 2010. The International Green Roof Association (IGRA) hosted the 2nd International Green Roof Congress 2009 in Nürtingen, Germany and the 3rd annual Green Roofs Australia Conference 2009 was held at the University of Melbourne. Longevity was evident with the 7th National FBB Green Roof Conference in Ditzingen, Germany and the 7th annual Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards, and Trade Show in Atlanta, Georgia. By the way, look for the 8th annual GRHC conference to occur in Vancouver, B.C. on November 30 – December 2, 2010, rebranded as ”Cities Alive.” Look for many new 2010 events throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, China, Singapore, India and more under Upcoming Events, where you can also access Past Events.
7)Green walls are firmly becoming entrenched in sustainable design,evidenced by high media attention, as much for their green properties as for their edible gardening possibilities. We’ve had tons of news articles posted in NewsLinks, our huge database of global articles, concerning living walls and green façades! In fact, they were listed as #31 in TIME’s 50 Best Inventions of 2009 and Triple Pundit recently proposed: ”Gardens Grow Up: Are Vertical Landscapes the New Green Roofs?“ - both featuring the works of Patrick Blanc. In our business you’d have to be living under a rock not to know who the renowned French botanist is; his often fantastical “murs végétalisés” designs stretch the limits of horticulture and design. Since 1994, he has created over 140 public vertical gardens as well as many private installations, including his most famous, the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, shown below. Read more about green walls from Treehugger, Daily Telegraph, Daily Commercial News, The New York Times, Times Online and CNN.com, just to name a few.
In 2009 Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, the North American professional association, established greenwall research projects at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland, and GRHC has included an award category for Green Wall Excellence in Design for a couple of years now. In 2008 Greenroofs.com added our 8th Contributing Editor, George Irwin - aptly titled The Green Wall Editor - to cover this growing vertical gardening field, and new for 2010 we have altered the title of our Greenroof Projects Database to reflect the inclusion of these: The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database.
6)Investing in green building and infrastructure makes good economic sense by integrating green building policies into wider economic development goals, and creates a new job market. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has prompted a gigantic increase in federal green spending, providing new money to all levels of government, aimed at stimulating the economy, promoting job growth, and lowering energy costs, providing an unprecedented opportunity for advancing green building and sustainability efforts in the U.S. And last December, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported at least 138 U.S. cities with populations over 50,000 people have green building programs in place (compared to only 92 in 2007). Referring to the economic recession, the AIA said “The downturn has had a devastating effect on construction generally, but sustainable building design continues to maintain and improve its market share.” Read their 2009 in depth study “Green Building Policy in a Changing Economic Environment” to learn more.
American Institute of Architects 2009 Study of Green Building Programs by Cities
U.S. economic stimulus efforts encompass green energy and construction, including greenroofs along with other forms of green building, and just one such example of Recovery Act funds benefit Washington D.C., where the Washington Business Journal says “Nearly $4 million would go toward building more than 100,000 sf of green roofs on city buildings, including libraries, firehouses and a demonstration project atop the parking garage deck at University of the District of Columbia. The stimulus funds would also expand the city’s green roof rebate program to allow residents and small businesses to afford another 20,000 sf of private green roof space.”
And importantly, many green building programs are also creating “green collar” jobs. In late 2009, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Booz Allen Hamilton conducted a study and stated “Green building will support 7.9 million U.S. jobs and pump $554 billion into the American economy – including $396 billion in wages – over the next four years (2009-2013). The study also determined that green construction spending currently supports more than 2 million American jobs and generates more than $100 billion in gross domestic product and wages…The full report can be downloaded at www.usgbc.org/greeneconomy, where one can also find other research, resources, tools and information about green building and its role in the economic recoveries of professionals, businesses and the nation.” According to an analysis by American Rivers and the Alliance for Water Efficiency, the Natural Resources Defense Council reports that a $10 billion nationwide initiative to install greenroofs alone would result in almost 200,000 jobs – the Senate is expected to consider its own version of the bill in early 2010.
5)Green Roofs for Healthy Cities launched the Green Roof Professional (GRP) accreditation for North America. The GRP is a measure of knowledge of established best practices and although a voluntary program, with the designation professionals can distinguish themselves in the marketplace. This association milestone was at least four years in the making! Currently with more than 250 GRP’s in 2009, GRHC hopes to add more professionals in 2010. Check their website for future testing dates, and consider attending one of their Green Roof Boot Camps to refresh and get you ready. See my interview with Jeff Bruce, president of Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company, Chair of GRHC and the GRHC Training and Accreditation Committee, which developed the Green Roof Professional program, to learn why the organization felt this accreditation was needed, how it evolved, and where it’s heading. For more info on the GRP, see “A Video Introduction to the GRP Program” from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.
4)Within the U.S. industry, major contributions were made in the area to develop best practice wind and fire standards for greenroof design. Since 2007, leaders from various organizations have been working hard on prescriptive standards, and in 2009 standards were inserted into the International Building Code from members of GRHC and Single Ply Roofing Industry (SPRI). Read “Green Roof Wind & Fire Design Guidelines: After Three Years, Half the Battle is Won,” written by one of our Contributing Editors, Kelly Luckett, The Green Roof Guy, to learn about this winding road’s development of RP-14 and VF-1. And stay tuned for updates with his column here on Greenroofs.com.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUe) Wind Tunnel Testing in June, 2009.
3) The global Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database surpassed the 1,000 mark in December! So where are all these greenroofs and greenwalls anyway? Let’s continue to work together to grow, update, and share valuable case studies for our communal benefit, for free. Even in today’s openly transparent society (think Google Earth), some people worry about confidentiality issues, and we only post information that is submitted to us by owners/project principals or that which is openly available through various media channels, and we always list owners as “private” when requested. The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database is now searchable by 24 fields, including specifically for green walls. After our Home Page, the Projects Database is the next visited page on Greenroofs.com – make sure your projects and valuable experiences are included here.
2) My albeitly biased personal favorite, Greenroofs.com inaugurated our first episode of the Sky Gardens ~ Greenroofs of the World™ WebTV series. Premiering at Boston GreenFest in September, our new venture followed on the GreenroofsTV channel on YouTube, and next on our own greenroofs.tv, where you can now see it in its entirety at just under 37 minutes. By the way, you can also view our video offshoot, ”Greenroofs 101 from Greenroofs.com” (4:50) in Greenroofs 101 or directly below, which is a great way to introduce the concept to newcomers. Coming soon is episode 2, highlighting the gorgeous Cook+Fox Architects corporate offices in Manhattan, NY. Our third episode is in the works, and more are being scheduled, so stay tuned!
1) 2009 saw some serious support for greenroofs, championed by professional organizations and governmental bodies alike. Global industry support has grown over the years, and many advocates continue to actively promote them worldwide. For example, the City of Chicago, certainly the U.S. leader in greenroofs, now has over 7 million square feet of vegetated roofs completed or under development. New support in 2009 includes:
North America: In addition to offering eco-incentives for greenroofs, currently Toronto has the most progressive policy in North America – last May Toronto became the first city here to adopt a bylaw to require and govern the construction of greenroofs. The new bylaw will be required on all new development above 2,000 m² (about 21,530 sf) of gross floor area and have a graduated coverage requirement ranging from 20-60%. Working with a program budget of $800,000/year, owners of industrial and commercial buildings can apply for grants worth up to $100,000 (Canadian) to build a greenroof. Mayor David Miller predicts the rules and incentives will create 50 to 60 green-roofed buildings per year, in addition to their current 135 vegetated roofs. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities supported the by-law against pressure from developers opposed to the policy. See more details under Industry Support and at the City of Toronto website.
Here in the U.S., in late 2009 ASLA, the American Society of Landscape Architects, worked with Congress to include the Green Act into the House-passed climate change legislation. The Act would require the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to employ greenroofs, tree canopy coverage, and other site planning techniques to help reduce heating and cooling costs in certain HUD facilities. Still pending before the Senate Finance Committee, last January Senator Maria Cantwell (WA) introduced the Clean Energy Stimulus and Investment Assurance Act of 2009 (S.320), legislation geared toward creating high-wage green-collar jobs and revitalizing the economy through clean energy investments. ASLA worked with Senator Cantwell’s office to ensure that a section of the bill was dedicated to green roof tax incentives, and GRHC provided technical support. Under section 506 of the bill, residential and commercial property owners will receive a 30% tax credit for qualified greenroof expenditures.
As you may recall, Congress enacted Section 438 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) to require federal agencies to reduce stormwater runoff from federal development projects to protect water resources and in October of 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order 13514 on “Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance” calling upon all federal agencies to lead by example and address a wide range of environmental issues, including stormwater runoff. Federal agencies can comply with Section 438 by using a variety of green infrastructure / low impact development techniques including living roofs. Prepared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in coordination with other federal agencies, the “Technical Guidance on Implementing the Stormwater Runoff Requirements for Federal Projects under Section 438 of the Energy Independence and Security Act” PDF is highly detailed and instructive.
State and municipal governments also provided policy support: Former Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine signed three bills promoting incentives in 2009: HB 1975 and SB 1058 authorize localities to grant regulatory flexibility and incentives to promote the construction of vegetative roofs on private homes and businesses. The incentives or regulatory flexibility could include a reduction in permit fees, a streamlined process for the approval of building permits, or a reduction in any gross receipts tax on greenroof contractors as defined by the local ordinance. The third bill, HB 1828, allows water authorities to offer rate incentives for vegetative roof construction, based on the percentage of stormwater runoff reduction. In late fall, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA), Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSDGC), and the Office of Environmental Quality created a Green Roof Loan Program utilizing money from the Water Pollution Control Loan Fund. OEPA has made $5,000,000 available for linked deposit, below market rate loans to install green vegetative roofs within the service area of MSDGC on residential, commercial and/or industrial buildings.
Already a city offering several greenroof incentives, in October Portland’s city commission approved a Climate Action Plan which calls for a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and an 80% reduction by 2050. According to the Portland Business Journal, “The Plan calls for the city and county to take 93 actions over the next three years. City bureaus must immediately begin implementing 15 of the new climate-related initiatives, such as establishing a tax credit for businesses that install ecoroofs and solar panels together.” And last month, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District invited governments, organizations, school districts, and businesses within the 28 communities it serves to participate in their 2010 Regional Green Roof Initiative Program. Among other prerequisites, proposed projects must minimize impervious roof area and maximize the reduction in the rate and/or volume of stormwater runoff.
The World:Singapore is targeting 50 hectares of skyrise greenery by 2030 and its Urban Redevelopment Authority launched the LUSH Programme (Landscaping for Urban Spaces and High-Rises) in April of 2009. Offering financial and planning incentives to developers to provide greenery at the upper levels of high rise buildings, their goal is to make 80% of all buildings in Singapore green by 2030. Quezon City, Phillipines has a new law requiring private and government-owned buildings to green part of their rooftops. New commercial/residential buildings, under the Green Roof Ordinance (Ordinance 1940) signed into law by Mayor Feliciano R. Belmonte, Jr. last September, should allocate at least 30% of their roof area for plants and trees. In Australia, the Queensland Government signed a “Memorandum Of Understanding” with the Singapore National Parks Board late last year to trial vertical gardens and greenroofs in various cities in an effort to benefit from Singapore’s experience with skyrise greenery.
Dubai Municipality launched a greenroof initiative in line with a Dubai law on green building specifications. The Municipality’s strategic goal is to raise per capita green area to 23.4 square meters by the end of 2011, with the green building project coming under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, United Arab Emirate Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. A public awareness campaign for greenroofs was announced last month, committed to the “development of laws and regulations to keep pace with international standards in the field of sustainable development by planting green roofs and facades in the Emirate of Dubai.” Traveling display models and educational publications will circulate residential neighborhoods and shopping centers and markets for a 12-month period. Read more on the Dubai Municipality Portal. One spectacular greening project currently on the boards in Dubai is the self-sustained system “Food City” below, designed by Green Concepts Landscape Architects (GCLA):
The proposed Dubai Food City, conceptualized by landscape architecture firm GCLA.
So here we are at the start of a whole new year – we hope you’re excited and optimistic about it, just as we are! Whatever 2009 offered you, we hope you embraced new friends and opportunities and experienced great personal and professional growth, and we thank you for your readership. What’s in store for our new decade? We’ll see, but as the green building industry continues with positive signs of sustained growth, let’s also continue to collaborate and create a more sustainable world with eco-architecture embracing greenroofs and greenwalls as part of the overall green living architecture strategy.
“I woke up one day to the fact that the earth’s surface was made for living plants, not industrial plants.” ~ Malcolm Wells
Here’s a gentle toast to continued health, love, and prosperity for you, your families, and all of our greenroof associates in 2010!
2009 marks the third year of our “Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof Design” – download the Press Release here. Compiled by our Design Editor, Haven Kiers, and I, we presented the Top 10 List on Friday, June 5, 2009 at the 7th Annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards and Trade Show in Atlanta, GA.
Our time slot was changed by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities from 9:30 am to 8:00 am, so if you went by an older Agenda, you missed us!
In 2007, we explored “chic sustainability” and looked at examples of trailblazing and trendsetting greenroof design. Last year, we turned to greenroof industry professionals for inspiration and guidance and asked them to share their top 10 trends of 2008 with us. Together we chose “The Influence of LEED on Design Professionals = Pushing the Green Envelope,” “Sky High Cool Green Schools,” and “Eco-Communities & Eco-Cities” for the top three spots.
This year, the projects we have chosen all share a similar concept – the desire to improve their surrounding environment. The focus of the Top 10 Trends of 2009 is on greenroof design as a means to combat problems in our world of the built environment versus nature, and restore sustainability to the eco-system.
I feel the common element running through all the categories this year is the increasing shift in viewing the building not as a single physical element to be manipulated, but holistically – integrating the site, building envelope, and roof with cultural awareness – creating vegetated surfaces in 3-D and truly linking nature to human design.
6) Sustainable Stimulus: Green Buildings Creating Green Collar Jobs
5) LID Strategies: Celebrating Water with Greenroofs, Rain Gardens, Stormwater Catchment & Beyond
4) Championing the Green Machine: Policy Driven Ecological Development
3) Healthy, Efficient & Affordable Green Housing
2) Sky-High Green Living on the Rise: Condos, Townhomes and Lofts
1) “Towers of Power” – Mega Vertical Structures Linking Earth and Sky
As usual, we included built projects, those on the boards, and several which are stunningly conceptual, like “The Lilypad” by Vincent Callebaut, above and below, designed to make us really push our notion of the possibilities of function and design, and to reprioritize and rethink our global view of our diminishing natural resources. Actually, The Lilypad is a “Tower of Power” – Mega Vertical Structures Linking Earth, Sky, and Water!
Missed our presentation? No problem - click on the 2009 PowerPoint here:
You can also view the 2008 and 2007 PowerPoint presentations of the Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof Design, and the papers, too. We’ll be posting the 2009 paper – with hyperlinks to each project in The Greenroof Projects Database - by the end of the month.
Well folks, it’s that time of year again. Linda and I have been burning the midnight oil trying to finalize this year’s Top 10 List of Hot Trendsin Greenroof Design, and we’re looking for input from you, our faithful Greenroofs.com readers.
Have you seen any outstanding green roof projects this year or in the past few years? Is there anything that stands out in terms of great design? Did you design a greenroof that you think needs a little extra recognition? We’re searching for all types of greenroofs – sleek and modern, esoteric, big or small, built or proposed.
10) Client Specific ‘Boutique’ Greenroofs
9) PreFab Modular Homes are Fabulous
8) Greenroofs as Art & Architecture
7) Parks & Interpretive Greenroof Spaces
6) Solar & Vegetative Roofs as High Performance Buildings
5) Greenroofs for Biodiversity
4) Institutional & Office Parks – Setting the Example
3) Eco-Communities & Eco-Cities
2) Sky High Cool Green Schools
1) The Influence of LEED on Design Professionals = Pushing the Green Envelope
And this is our “working” Top 10 List for 2009:
10) Unique Driving Factors/Boutique Greenroofs: “Mother Nature Meets Lady Luck” – Greenroof Casinos; Living Billboards, and more!
9) “Ecological” Gas Stations?
8) Heavenly Gardens – Religious Institutions Embracing Living Design
7) Design Competitions Promoting Future Inspiration
6) Green Buildings Creating Green Collar Jobs & Spurring the Industry
5) LID (Low Impact Development) Strategies: Celebrating Water with Greenroofs, Rain Gardens & Green Streets
4) Technological Advances – Faster, Cheaper, & Better Materials
3) The “Green Factor” – Policy Driving Ecological Development
2) Mayoral Initiatives – Championing the Green Machine
1)”Towers of Power” – Mega Vertical Structures Linking Earth and Sky
What do you think? Have you noticed any new greenroof trends this year? What are the forces driving new projects? Has the economy had an effect on the number or type of greenroofs being built? What role has the new Obama administration had on greenroof projects?
Send your suggestions, thoughts, website links, and photos by March 18th to the following email address:
If you are awaiting more direction to help you apply for a tax abatement in New York City, new solar and/or green roof tax abatement documents (PDF) have just been made public. Specifically they are:
Also, there’s a new New York City rule that implements Titles 4-B and 4-C of Article 4 of the Real Property Tax Law for property tax abatements. These Green Roof and Solar Electric Generating System Tax Abatement Rules (PDF) were published in “The City Record” on March 12, 2009 which is its effective date.
These rules are available for viewing on the DOB website.
Once again, the application and any documents required are due by 4:00 PM, March 16, 2009:
Department of Buildings
280 Broadway
7th floor
New York, NY 10007
Attention: Bonnie Gerard
Bonnie Gerard, Strategic Planning & Implementation, Project Manager NYC 2010 Electrical Code & Special Projects, says to feel free to ask her any questions regarding the application or any of the documents required at:
I’m on the NYC Tax Abatement e-mail list, and this is what Carter H. Strickland, Jr., Senior Policy Advisor for Air and Water in the Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, just sent out to advise everyone planning on applying for a tax abatement for either a greenroof or solar system:
Dear green roof stakeholder:
Given the tight time frame we are facing with processing the new green roof tax abatements for this year, the Department of Buildings is trying to streamline the process for processing those applications. Any solar installers or buildings owners who have a project that they think qualifies for an abatement this year (therefore needing to start the process by March 16, 2009 per the law) should immediately contact Bonnie Gerard (212-442-1239 or bgerard@buildings.nyc.gov) as soon as possible. DOB is finalizing the checklist and application forms for the abatement and we will distribute them to you as soon as we receive the finalized version (Bonnie will also be able to give them to you once they are finalized).
Please forward this email to anyone else you think could have green roof projects that are eligible for an abatement this year. Thank you.”
This follows the DOB hearing held yesterday, March 3, 2009, regarding implementing the draft regulations relating to the installation of green roofs for a tax abatement (which was open to public comment), approved by the state of New York in June of 2008.
Since the statute requires that applications have to be filed by March 15 every year (a Sunday in 2009, so it extends to the following day, March 16), NYC is trying to get a sense of the number of applications that they can expect. Obviously, New York City’s Department of Buildings needs to know immediately on prospective applications, so if you’re building a greenroof this year, take note!
August 8, 2008: GOVERNOR PATERSON SIGNS LAWS TO HELP SPUR INVESTMENT IN RENEWABLE ENERGY – The A.11226 Diaz R/S.7553 Lanza bill was signed by New York State Governor Paterson and deals with the tax abatement for renewable energy, providing a tax abatement for construction of green roofs in New York City. Read the Press Release from New York State.
June 24, 2008: Building owners in New York City who install green rooftops will now receive a significant tax credit under a bill (A.11226) sponsored by Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. that passed the state legislature on June 24, 2008.
Under this law, building owners in New York City who install green roofs on at least 50 percent of available rooftop space can apply for a one-year property tax credit of up to $100,000. The credit would be equal to $4.50 per square-foot of roof area that is planted with vegetation, or approximately 25 percent of the typical costs associated with the materials, labor, installation and design of the green roof. Read the Press Release from Sustainable South Bronx.
Check out the September 29, 2008 issue of People Magazine, and turn to the next to the last page. ”Up on the Roof” are Troy Wagner and his wife Julie – center stage on the mostly graphic two-page spread, talking about their 110-year old home in Tacoma, Washington. Back at the beginning of the year Troy had shared his experience with us about building his two greenroofs using a rather unique method. Based on traditional Scandinavian turf homes, one has a 12/12 pitch planted with sod, and he actually has a resident goat who provides a unique but sustainable form of maintenance from time to time!
The second greenroof is over his lesser pitched garage, which he actually mows. On one side the couple tends to vegetables while the other is a flower garden. Troy told me that after having owned a roofing company for 15 years and looking at 20,000 roofs he felt it was time to set an ecological example, so in 2004 they built their living roofs. Check out the ”Troy’s Green Roof“ profile in The Greenroof Projects Database. People also has photos of the Roofscapes’ Life Expression Wellness Center, the California Academy of Sciences, and a private residence in Sunol, California.
Known for their spectacular coverage of celebrities as well as plain old regular folk, I was surprised when one of the People article’s authors, Maureen Harrington, called me back in July to pick my brain about “the phenomenon of greenroofs in the U.S.” - I guess greenroofs really are becoming mainstream! She was looking for facts, and Ed Snodgrass of Green Roof Plants, who was interviewed, referred Maureen to me.
Everyone wants hard statistics (I also recently fielded some from Bloomberg News and Newsweek), and we get requests from tons of freelance writers all over the world – the UK, Chile, France, Poland…you name it. The point is our industry is still accumulating these figures since research and projects, at least in North America, are relatively new. I say relatively because although we can been studying and building modern-day living roofs here since the 1990’s, the Germans have figures from many types of testing and trials from the 1970’s. The websites of both Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) and us here at Greenroofs.com have been up since 1999 and in terms of facts, each has a lot of specific data: GRHC in their Tree of Knowledge page and from Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference proceedings (available for purchase if you didn’t get to each one), and Greenroofs.com in FAQ’s, ResearchLinks, Industry Support, and The Greenroof Projects Database.
But getting back to the People article, I suggested ranges rather than hard facts for costs and energy savings because each greenroof project is unique, something we have all been harping on for years. And in terms of numbers of projects, I gave my best guesstimate of “more than 500″ based on what we do have listed in The Greenroof Projects Database, profiles waiting to be entered, plus approximate numbers for under represented U.S. cities, including the more traditional sod homes found across the northern states. And they only wanted figures for residential projects, so that number includes not only Single-Family but also Multi-Family and Multi-Use profiles.
That’s why it’s so important to keep compiling case studies from across the globe to show the world that greenroofs are viable, demand and construction are thriving, and the market is here to stay. Everyone wants to know where they are, what type they are, who designed them, how big they are, etc., and of course everyone wants to see photos, too! The Greenroof Projects Database is meant to be a free international resource, so we encourage you to continue submitting profiles with as much information as you feel comfortable sharing, and we always send readers back to the original source for follow up.
Getting back to the article, Ed has a couple of quotes and referring to the added capital investment of greenroofs, he simply says:
“It’s like getting a Prius or solar panels…It costs more upfront but there are long-term savings.”
In addition to the obvious ecologocal, economic, and aesthetic benefits, we all know that greenroofs offer habitat for displaced birds, butterflies and other wildlife. I don’t know that goats up on a roof are the wave of the future, but I do believe that eco-friendly architecture is. In today’s environmentally conscious climate, eco-trends are here to stay and as these trends become the norm and turn mainstream, we’ll see costs driven down and then the vegetated roofing market will really take off.
And who knows, maybe in a few years’ time alongside perusing the Best & Worst Dressed People issue we’ll be also reading about the Best Sustainable Design Trends in People - perhaps even an article behind the greening of the White House? Now there’s a people story!
