We here at Greenroofs.com have rescheduled the Greenroofs & Walls of the World™ Virtual Summit 2011 for September 27th (Tuesday) & 28th (Wednesday).   A large number of unexpected events have made this decision necessary – from speaker delays/conflicts to personal events to technical glitches – yet, we know that the extra time will be well worth it in the end!

We are very excited about our exceptional line-up of speakers and exhibitors and the extra time will ensure that the event will be a unique experience like no other!

We will also be extending the Early Bird Pre-Registration date for the Virtual Summit quite a bit – up to a little more than 2 weeks before the event, which now will run through September 9.

Remember the Early Bird rate is only $49 (or $25 for students/faculty and government professionals) for both days plus the 30 archived on-demand days afterwards which includes over 30 presentations and panel sessions from 50+ colleagues from around the world.  So that means that the drawing for the first of two Apple iPad2s that we’ll be giving away will be announced on September 10 here on the Sky Gardens blog.

I’m hoping to finally release the agenda by the end of this week or Monday.  We have some incredibly awesome presentations, both individual and panel sessions – stay tuned!

See our Press Release here.  See you at the end of September!

~ Linda V.

An exclusive of Greenroofs.com, we’re now in our third year of publishing the “Greenroofs of the World™” 12-Month Wall Calendar series.  The 2010 version is now available and it’s filled with beautiful living roof projects and even more green building events from around the world than the previous last two years. 

I thought it might be interesting to some of you to learn about the design process, why and how we choose the highlighted projects – the ideology behind the product, which is our first.  Although I’ve been wanting to write a book (or two) for the last nine or so years, prior to the calendar all our “products” have been intellectual property offerings.  And as you probably know, all of the information on Greenroofs.com is free and without subscription, following an open source philosophy of information sharing.

I had been wanting to do a calendar for years as it was an obvious add on to The Greenroof Projects Database as well as complimentary to our Upcoming Events section where we list conferences, workshops, presentations, etc., from around the world.  So, voilá!  2008 marked the first year of the Greenroofs of the World™ 12-Month Wall Calendar series.  How do we select our featured projects?  From our website Sponsors, which is the highest level of advertising we offer on Greenroofs.com.  It’s our way to highlight fabulous examples of sustainable roof design and thank these companies who back us up by marketing their ecologically friendly products and services with us.  Each chooses their desired month on a first come, first serve basis.  I ask for two of their favorite projects each along with several shots each.  Then the fun starts!  I try and represent different types of greenroofs, sizes, and geographic locations within the U.S. and the world – and of course, the quality of the photo is a huge factor.  This is what is most time consuming!  We include a short description under each photo, and do our best to list all major designers/manufacturers of record, including the Sponsor.

As you know, greenroofs can be used at any scale, and in the past our smallest featured vegetated roof came in at 52 sf here in Atlanta, Georgia (2008), and the largest was a whopping 765,000 sf in Zaragoza, Spain (2009). For 2010, Calendar projects range from 1,000 sf in Manhattan, New York to 113,000 sf in Minneapolis, Minnesota, see below:

In addition to displaying eye-catching greenroofs, we also desired an eco friendly product, and I feel like we do create a truly eco-chic calendar!  Our 11″ x 18″ full-color glossy 12-month wall calendars are printed on 50% recycled paper with 25% post consumer waste using soy inks.  We use The Messenger Press of Carthagena, Ohio where Randy Heitkamp does a great job of printing excellent quality work – and we recommend him highly.

This year we decided to go global, and you can purchase the 2010 Calendar on Amazon.com as well as from us directly.  But I will say that you’ll save money by ordering through us at only $12.95 each, with free shipping in the contiguous U.S. and Canada (contact us for international shipping rates).  And there are quantity discounts, too.

The 2010 Greenroofs of the World™ 12-Month Wall Calendar will make a great inexpensive Christmas/Holiday gift or stocking stuffer (well, if you have a really wide stocking!) for all you greenroof aficionados out there.  See our Press Release here, where you can view each project highlighted in The Greenroof Projects Database.  And find out the details for ordering here.

 Happy Holidays!  ~ Linda V.

I receive a lot of great info about a variety of topics from readers – tidbits and sometimes more elaborate – usually not quite enough to qualify as a Guest Feature on Greenroofs.com, but certainly enough to pique our interest for a blog post.  Of course I don’t have unlimited time at my disposal to further research all of these newsworthy items, nor do our Contributing Editors, so we’ve decided to open up our Sky Gardens Blog to Guest Posts. 

Talking about our Contributing Editors, as it is I’m the one blogging the most anyway – they all have their real careers and companies to run, after all, so I think this will open up our piece of the blogosphere a bit – new blood and all that.

So how does it work and what are we looking for?  Posts will come through me, and I’ll determine if the topic is pertinent, appropriate, and in-line with the tone of “Sky Gardens ~ where cool green meets lofty blue.”  So what’s that, again?  From my bio in About Us:

“Cool green?”  Cool green architecture, cool green people, cool green environments, etc., you get the picture. “Lofty blue?”  As in sky high spaces, places, ideals, and ideas. 

Ask yourself, Will the greenroof community be eager to read this?  Is it environmentally interesting, important, funny, or thought provoking?  Good examples are projects with greenroofs or green walls you visited or articles/videos you came across, people and organizations who are working in the sustainable design field, commentary on green case studies, examples of best practices, links to industry news, or media happenings in general.  No press releases, infomercials or advertorials, please!  If you want to advertise your product or service, great – we keep that separate, just visit Advertise with Us.  Also see our Submissions page for more.  If accepted, the author’s name will be followed by a comma and Guest Post, as in Jane Doe, Guest Post to differentiate you from the Team at Greenroofs.com.

Guidelines are simple, please:

Informal and opinionated is fine, but no nastiness or preaching will be tolerated.  Be clear and concise, edit and spellcheck your work – don’t make us ask for clarifications!  If English is not your native tongue, that’s different and we’ll be more tolerant, so please state that.   But we will still not publish poorly written work.

Include relevant references and websites; if you are lifting someone else’s work, put it in quotes and give the source.  When referencing an article or other post, it’s not considered polite to paste the entire story (not to mention legal in terms of copyright issues).  Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph (40 words), then include a link to the rest of the story.  But I really don’t want copied articles that are just being regurgitated over the Internet – be creative and summarize in your own words!

Length:  About 250 words would be max.  Sometimes less is more, but it’s only a guideline.

Send great and awesome photos, graphics and images, people!  How many?  At least two, more is better.  No one wants to read a bunch of words going on and on about some vague architectural philosophy pertaining to culture and the evolution/decline of man without some interesting photos to break it up.  Again, state the source and if the photo is copyrighted, get permission and include the name of the photographer.

Send your posts to:  submissions@greenroofs.com

Format:  Word, TXT, or RTF; Photos:  JPG or GIF, no larger than 490 x 342 pixels

Here’s a new opportunity for Greenroofs.com to continue our onward and upward expansion into the greenroof world, as well as your opportunity to share your views with our readership.  So for those of you who want to be bloggers, here’s your chance!

As always, we welcome your ideas and comments ~ Linda V.