Our daughter, Anjuli, has been writing, filming and editing our “This Week in Review” video since August, 2010 and each week you can expect to learn What’s New here on Greenroofs.com. Here’s the transcript for April 8, 2011 - click on the photo below to see the video, or here. Enjoy!
- Hello, I’m Anjuli Velazquez and welcome to This Week in Review for April 8th, 2011 on GreenroofsTV.
- Our project of the week is the National Trust Visitor Centre at Portstewart Strand built in 2008 in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The National Trust is Northern Ireland’s largest conservation charity and the Strand, nestled amongst a two mile stretch of award winning beach and sand dunes, has been designated an Area of Special Scientific Interest and a proposed Special Area of Conservation. Meeting the highest environmental standards, the new National Trust Visitor Centre facilities here are designed to maximize energy from natural light. The structure was constructed with cedar panels from renewable sources and includes a greenroof; the vegetation and the timber will weather naturally to blend in with the landscape. Sustainability is also key and in accordance with the Trust’s policy of managed coastline retreat, the facility, which is built on sand, is demountable, so it can be relocated with minimal impact. A ZinCo green roof system from sustainable roofing specialists Alumasc was chosen for the new National Trust Visitor Centre at Portstewart Strand in County Londonderry.
- Watch the trailer for the Rooftop Rainforest TV program on Sky 1 HD with Dusty Gedge on our greenroofsTV page at the link below. The program follows urban ecologist and wildlife expert Dusty Gedge in his ambitious effort to build an indoor rainforest on top of London’s Westfield Centre in Shepherd’s Bush. Gedge will face countless obstacles as he attempts to construct a structure to house tropical trees, plants, animals and insects.
- Our annual Earth Day Photo Contest is upon us! Starting today, April 8th, you can submit your photos for the 2011 Earth Day Photo Contest. Go to the Sky Gardens Blog and read, “Enter the 2011 ‘Love the Earth, Plant a Roof!’ Earth Day Photo Contest!” later tonight and/or our Facebook page at facebook.com/greenroofs for all of the details of entering and voting for this year’s contest!
- While you’re at the Sky Gardens Blog, check out Linda’s latest posts. Read about our project of the week on the “GPW: National Trust Visitor Centre at Portstewart Strand” blogpost. You can also read my script on the “Greenroofs.com’s ‘This Week in Review’ on GreenroofsTV: 4.1.11” post. And on the “Join DC Greenworks for their ‘Day Without Oil Reception’ on April 14th” post, you can read how two leading environmental advocates are teaming up to commemorate the first anniversary of the Gulf Oil Spill and preview the 2011 Earth Day celebrations with a Day Without Oil gathering to promote reduced use of fossil fuels. You can participate by signing the pledge to: Refrain from using gasoline or other fossil fuels for one day, and donating the value of one day’s oil consumption – $17.40 to an environmental organization on the front lines. Go to the blogpost for all of the details.
- Stayed tuned for our latest Sky Gardens – Greenroofs of the World: The Cook+Fox Architects Office episode in Manhattan, New York coming soon! Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Cook+Fox Architects LLP Office is that it is the first known modular green roof system to have been entirely removed with new waterproofing installed, and then re-installed in 2008 to great success. That is what makes this project truly unique – completely dismantling and replacing the roof using the same growing media and plants, without having to dig up a single plant, let alone incurring the cost of a new green roof system! For more information about this project profile you can search Cook+Fox in our projects database, or visit this link below: http://greenroofs.com/projects/pview.php?id=670
- Kim Glovas of CBS Philadelphia, gives you the “Guide To Going Green.” She says, “Today, tree huggers and business tycoons are both involved in the greening of America. The green movement encourages people to clean up their litter; to use less water; to recycle paper, glass and plastic; and to drive environmentally friendly vehicles, like hybrids and electric-powered cars.” With Earth Day coming up on April 22nd, many people would like to know how they can help our planet but maybe not where to start. On this article, you can read and listen to how the average home-owner can help by decreasing their own carbon footprint with things like landscaping: using locally grown plants and flowers to save on fossil fuels, and home energy: like installing your very own greenroof.
- Nicole D’Alessandro of examiner.com, says “Greenroofs are growing.” The West Woods Nature Center served as the pilot green roof project for the Geauga Park District to study the benefits of greenroof construction and technology and the list of greenroofs across Northeast Ohio is growing with projects like the Cleveland Environmental Center in Ohio City, which included a portion of green roofing, and with the help of its Environmental Science students, the Cleveland State University’s Recreation Center got a 7,000 sq ft greenroof. There are many benefits to green roofs like: decreased stormwater runoff; decreased impermeable surfaces, which helps reduce the urban heat island effect; and increased insulation in cold climates and absorption of heat in hot climates, which affects a building’s energy use. Greenroofs can be beautiful and offer a wonderful habitat for wildlife while also extending the life of a roof. Any concern of installing a greenroof can be taken away with the help of professionals.
- Mark Apfelbacher of Water World, asks “Green Roof Professional: What does it mean?” He says, “With so many accreditations and acronyms floating around in the water industry, it’s an accomplishment equally worthy of certification to identify half the listed designations.” GRP acknowledges the level of professional green roofing expertise and allows individuals to have the distinction of being someone who has the appropriate knowledge. We know the vast benefits of green roofs, and they can last a long time when designed and managed correctly; but there are rare cases of failure, like Chicago’s Aquascape, Inc, which collapsed in February. Although engineers are still investigating the cause of the collapse, Apfelbacher says “it’s crucial to note that the collapse shouldn’t discourage use of green roofs as multi-functional building improvements…green roofs have been installed in much harsher climates with higher annual snowfall levels than that of Chicago and have weathered the elements for decades.” A GRP accreditation is a valuable title to earn for understanding green roof system design and implementation, and also to help teams understand the challenges of green roof systems and the best practices to go about building and maintaining them.
- To learn more about these stories and new ones posted daily, go to our In the News or newslinks section of our website.
- Have something you think we should know about and post on our website? You can send us your green articles, videos and images to editor@greenroofs.com.
Professor Suresh Billore, PhD, DSc, Organizing Secretary, has issued an open invitation to attend and participate in the World Green Infrastructure Network (WGIN) International Green Technology Symposium 2011, which will be held in Indore, India on October 31 through November 2, 2011.
This prestigious greenroof symposium is the first of its kind in India! Organized by GREEN TAKNIKI – Restoring Nature, the International Symposium on Green Technology (Green Roof, Green City, Rain Harvesting) will be held under the auspices of the World Green Infrastructure Network (with President Professor Manfred Köhler of Germany) and co-hosted by the Mayor of Indore.
If you’re interested in presenting a paper, please submit your extended abstract (1,000) words) by May 28, 2011 to info@greenindia2011.org.
Professor Suresh Billore also encourages non-paper contributors to attend, which will include joining one full session workshop on Green Roofs, Rain Harvesting, and the LEED and GRP designations. Tours to this exotic and burgeoning green locate will also be offered!
Aramis and I were excited to attend and exhibit at CitiesAlive!, the 8th Annual Green Roof and Wall Conference on November 30 through December 4, 2010 in this beautiful harbor city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, co-hosted by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Neither of us had been here, and we really had been looking forward to seeing this naturally gorgeous city surrounded by majestic snow covered mountain peaks, and we weren’t disappointed!
Celebrating its 125th Anniversary on April 6 of this year, Vancouver, B.C. is “Canada’s Cultural capital.” Originally inhabited by the Coast Salish people – the ancestors of the Squamish, Burrard, Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam (Xw’muthk’i'um), Tsawwassen, Coquitlam (Kwayhquitlam), Katzie andSemiahmoo Indian bands, Spanish explorers first “discovered” Canada’s west coast in the early 1590’s. Captain George Vancouver arrived 200 years later, and fur trading, gold mining, and tree logging soon followed by the mid 1800’s. Vancouver’s cultural diversity is reflected everywhere – you have a huge selection of shopping, restaurants, bars, pubs, and nightclubs in various locales throughout the city.
Vancouver also has professed a steadfast commitment to sustainability – their long term goal is to lead the world in green building design and construction, and it promises to be “the greenest city in the world” by 2020. Vancouver’s targets include requiring all buildings constructed from 2020 onward to be carbon neutral in operations and reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in existing buildings by 20% over 2007 levels. Reportedly, Vancouver has the greenest building code for new homes in North America, but they don’t plan to stop here - they believe the technology already exists to support a more ambitious new construction requirement: net zero or carbon neutral new buildings. Read the “GC 2020 Draft Green Building Action Plan” here.
“These green building innovations will create thousands of new jobs, create a significant economic stimulus, increase the value of buildings, reduce property owners’ operating costs, help Vancouver become more resilient to climate change and energy price fluctuations, and position Vancouver as a global leader in green building technologies and expertise.” ~ Talk Green Vancouver/ City of Vancouver
As you may know, Corporate Knights, Canada’s magazine for clean capitalism, recently ranked Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. at the top of the list of Canada’s most sustainable cities – see the 2.9.11 Press Release.
Our hotel and venue were both beautiful and green. The luxurious Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel is situated atop a pier at the magnificent Canada Place complex on Vancouver’s dramatic waterfront. And its iconic white sails have made it a prominent landmark for the city (currently being renovated).
Part of the Green key ECO – rating program (rated 4) itself, the Pan Pacific is conveniently located just a short walk above or below ground to the multiple award-winning venue, the LEED® Platinum certified for New Construction Vancouver Convention Centre. This expansion project is also known as the Vancouver Convention Centre West, and last year it served as the international broadcast and media center for the XXI Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games. (Haven and I included it in 2007’s Top 10 List under the #2 category, Bigger is Better – Mega Greenroofs.)
In addition to its massive 261,360 sf living roof – the largest in Canada - seawater heating and cooling, on-site water treatment and fish habitat are built into the foundation of the Convention Centre’s West Building, making the expansion project one of the greenest convention centers in the world. Located both on land and in the water, the views were breathtaking and spectacular! The floor-to-ceiling glass allow for maximum viewing pleasure of the North Shore mountains and the harbor, its boats, and even sea planes landing at will.
Planted with more than 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses from the Gulf Islands, the roof provides a beautiful flowering natural habitat to birds, insects and small mammals. Many people worked on this project- see this gorgeous video taken by David Buge with Bruce Hemstock of PWL Partnership Landscape Architects narrating on top of the Vancouver Convention Centre:
Although the greenroof is inaccessible to the public, the designers cleverly have allowed glimpses of the various angles and vegetated planes on two separate levels for visitors to enjoy, see below:
And the interior is just as cool andeco-friendly as the massive six-acre native plant greenroof overhead. For example, a phenomenal mosaic of cedar and hemlock pieces covering the interior walls creates a warm glow and adds multi-dimension to the expansive space.
Kudos to GRHC and BCIT for securing this fabulous, uber-sustainably designed venue!
Back to the CitiesAlive! Conference and Trade Show: We arrived on Tuesday, November 30 to make sure we were on time for the following day’s pre-conference activities (this was also the first day of tours, but we were too late to make it).
On Wednesday, GRHC offered five half-day education classes and one anticipated new one, the Introduction to Rooftop Agriculture – a topic that is really hot right now. Additionally, they had four 1.5 hour education sessions which all sounded interesting! But since I had to choose, I attended the 4-hour “Integrated Water Management for Buildings & Sites” seminar presented by Jeffrey Bruce, FASLA, GRP, President of Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company (and Chair of GRHC), while Aramis set up our exhibitor booth and attended the Corporate Members Committee Meeting.
I had heard mixed reviews about the course from its initial launch in Washington, D.C. last year, that it was certainly informative but a bit dry. But as someone with a degree in landscape architecture and a fairly good background in stormwater management, I enjoyed it. It wasn’t particularly dry, just quite technical and very in-depth in terms of definitions, policies, and procedures – although it said it was an introductory class, I would say it was definitely not for beginners! Developed by GRHC and the Association of Irrigation Consultants (ASIC), with leads Jeff Bruce and Lynda Wightman of Hunter, it embraces new approaches to design for Net Zero Water consumption.
The course covered water types and sources, and how we may manage water and energy resources more effectively including application and recapture methods. Jeff is a very good instructor – patient and extremely knowledgeable (his company also developed the course) -and the class was very interactive. We had some lively discussions from a really multi-disciplinary group of professionals from across Canada and the U.S., both from private practice and government at various levels. And the 98-page “Integrated Water Management for Buildings & Sites” Participant’s Manual is a veritable Bible of Integrated Water Management information.
Greenroofs.com was proud, once again, to be a Media Sponsor for the 8th year. The CitiesAlive! Opening Plenary on Wednesday night, sponsored by Architek.ca, was extremely interesting as we were greeted with a lovely traditional Coast Salish welcome from Elder Rose Point of the Musqueam First Nation and welcome song from Gerry Oleman, photo above from BCIT.
GRHC President Steven Peck was the Master of Ceremonies and he spoke about the many efforts and accomplishments of the industry association in the past year, including many firsts. We also heard from City of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who proclaimed his city would be the greenest in world, and from Rod Goy, the Acting Dean of the School of Construction and the Environment at BCIT, who spoke about their commitment to greening the built environment.
The always popular Paul Kephart of Rana Creek Living Architecture was the eloquent keynote speaker and shared his vision as a restoration ecologist and designer of living architectural systems. He also spoke about several of his collaborations with unique and large scale projects including the Gap Headquarters, Transbay Terminal Bay, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Croton Water Treatment Plant (Mosholu Golf Course) in New York which, when completed, will be the largest continuous greenroof in North America at nine acres.
Afterwards the Trade Show opened, the socializing started and didn’t stop until late. Thursday dawned overcast but the sessions started bright and early at 8:30 am. As usual, there was a huge number of expert international speakers in every track, with four tracks in all – Policy, Design, Research, and Expert Discussion Panels. In my opinion, it’s almost too massive a program, since it’s impossible to experience even a fraction of all the excellent presentations. What most people did was jump from session speaker to another to ensure they could hear their favorites. I think the ideal would be to send four people from each company or organization to attend each and then get together and debrief, but, really, who could afford that.
I found that I ended up splitting the next two days worth of sessions between the Design Track and the Expert Discussions. I started off the first day, Thursday, December 2nd, with the Barriers and Opportunities to Advance Collaborative Design Practices panel and heard from Paul Kephart, landscape architect David Yocca of Conservation Design Forum, and environmental engineer Greg Allen from Sustainable Edge. Jeff Bruce moderated, and these four highly seasoned professionals provided an intense interplay of personal opinion and practical experience, with plenty of audience interaction adding to the pot of working with disparate professionals.
The Temperate Green Roofs session followed and we learned about The Ted & Lois Hole Green Roof Healing Garden in Edmonton, Alberta. Designed by the wonderful Kerry Ross, Project Architect with IBI Group Architects and Ernie Webster, Landscape Architect with IBI/Landplan, this 22,500 sf hybrid extensive/intensive green roof is located at a new facility for holistic healing, the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Designed to commemorate Lois Hole, the former Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, and her husband Ted, it serves as a passive healing garden and visual amenity. The trees, shrubs, tall grasses and flowers were selected to represent the natural flora of Alberta, and were supplied by the family nursery. Some of the beautiful features include lots of seating areas, a water fall and reflecting pool, colorful glass screens, and places for art.
I hopped over to Expert Discussions – Standards Development for Green Roofs and Walls – Future Directions, Challenges and Needs with Mike Curry of Midwest Trading, Dr. Robert Berghage of Penn State, Kelly Luckett of Green Roof Blocks, and Blair Bennett of Soprema. Moderated by Zachary Williams of CarlisleSynTec, it was pretty interesting. There was a lot of candid sentiment about the process and practical issues from from what appeared to be an audience of mostly engineers, architects, city planners and the likes. Everyone wanted to know how their product or system might fare and how to get involved, and maintenance issues and ensuring maintenance contracts were included in deliverables were also a hot topic.
But I hopped back after about 20 minutes because I didn’t want to miss Nate Griswold from American Hydrotech and his presentation about the Lincoln Center for the Performing Artsand some of their unusual challenges with this project shaped like a hyperbolic paraboloid. Problems arose with the varying slopes as well as the high amount foot traffic and as a result, a new steep slope product and assembly for this type of greenroof was developed.
Unfortunately, I missed out on most of The Hugh Garner Green Roof Project – an integrated process, presented by Monica Kuhn of Monica E. Kuhn Architect, Inc. and Carolyn Moss of Moss Sund Architects, Inc., but I learned more about it when we featured this great multi-unit residential Housing Co-operative in downtown Toronto as our first Greenroof Project of the Week for 2011:
The GRHC 2010 Awards of Excellence Luncheon followed and twelve awards were given this year – eight for awesome buildings withgreenroofs andgreenwalls, including local favorite, the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project. Below is Peter MacDonagh, one of the principals of The Kestrel Design Group, who received a Special Recognition Award of Excellence for their work withThe City of Minneapolis Target Center Arena, which we featured in our 2010 Hot Trends Top 10 List in the #9 category, “Green Sporting Venues.”
There were some other really cool projects, see them all here, as well as four deserving individuals honored within our industry.
One of these was Kelly Luckett, above, AKA The Green Roof Guy, who won a Civic Award of Excellence for his hard work on the RP-14 Wind Design Guideline (read his Green Roofs, a Civic Award of Excellence, and a Lifetime of Memories article). Talk about someone who really should have been recognized! He has put in years of his life (not to mention probably tens of thousands of dollars from his own pocket) to further this important issue for our industry. And he was really excited and humbled about receiving it, too. I can only say how humble and proud I felt when he acknowledged me for giving him a platform to write. Way to go, Kelly!
The Lifetime Achievement Awardsceremony was truly poignant and inspiring as a special tribute was held for two legends of the roof garden/greenroofing industry. Author of “Roof Gardens, History, Design and Construction,” W.W. Norton, 1999, the late Theodore Osmundson, FASLA, was honored. Theodore Osmundson became a Fellow of the ASLA in 1963 and was ASLA president from 1967-1969. We heard about his lifelong passion for landscape architecture, and roof gardens in particular, from his son, Gordon.
Inspired by the Rockefeller Center Roof Gardens in New York City, industrialist Henry Kaiser hired Osmundson in 1958 to design the beautiful 3 and a half acre public park, the Kaiser Center Roof Gardenin Oakland, CA, which became Osmundson’s best known work. Gordon Osmundson, also a successful landscape architect, has taken on the task of working on a second edition of his dad’s highly successful “Roof Gardens” book.
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, OC, FASLA, FCSLA, LMBCSLA then graced the stage and spoke about “Reflections of six decades designing natural sites.” Educated at Harvard University, she expressed her love and gratitude for landscape architecture where she has shone brilliantly as a leader in garden roofs, and spoke about her early work while raising a family. She shared the visions of some of her numerous important projects, including the stunning Visitor Centre Green Roof at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens.
Designed by Busby Perkins + Willand Cornelia, the center is slated to meet the Living Building Challenge 2.0 (as per the Cascadia Green Building Council) as well as LEED Platinum standards. To receive its Living Building certification, the center will have to operate for 12 months with net zero energy while providing all of its own water.
Thursday afternoon was spent in and out of our Exhibit Booth on the Trade Show Floor, popping into a variety of sessions, and simply catching up with lots of people!
The Trade Show floor had a good turnout, and most exhibitors we spoke to were pleased with the quality of visitors to their booths (meaning designers and specifiers). I have to say our Greenroofs.com booth was hopping most of the time, and we had tons of visitors – thanks to all of you who came by to say hello!
This may have been due to our lively and lovely in-house booth mates, Contributing Editors Patrick Carey (and GRHC Trainer), Haven Kiers (also a GRHC Trainer), andCaroline Menetre, above, who camped out here off and on. We had some interesting booth neighbors, including the vivacious Kathy of BusyBee Gardening across from us, seen below, as well as neighbors Craig of MYKE® Pro Premier Tech Biotechnology andGenevièveNöel of Mubi Regenerative Consulting, below her:
Dr. Clayton Rugh of Xero Flor America, above, andXero Flor Canada were also close by and I have to say Thank you! to Joy Schmidt for giving me a copy of the lovely book “Vancouver 2010.” All about the 17 Olympic and 10 Paralympic Games days, it features stunning photos of Vancouver and their Xero Flor greenroof technology that covers approximately 56,000 sf of the Millennium Water Project - Vancouver’s Olympic Village. Here are more Trade Show pics:
That evening, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities put on a really nice, invitation-only GRP Reception for the first year’s class (2009-2010) of graduating Green Roof Professionals. It was casually elegant and beautifully set up - the beverage and food selection was wonderful and the service was excellent. Aramis and I saw a lot of our friends and colleagues here, and met quite a few new ones, too.
We heard Sara Loveland and Ashleigh Uiska (with Dusty Gedge) threw an awesome afterparty, but we had our own much smaller version with our band of Contributing Editors and colleagues. By the way, Sara won our free yearly Premium Listing in The Greenroof Directory.
The Friday sessions were just as bustling and varied. I sat through (and thoroughly enjoyed) Green Wall Case Studies II, starting withInterior Living Wall Biofilter Projects – Lessons Learned from Pioneering Experience from Dr. Alan Darlington of Nedlaw Living Walls and Birgit Siber of Diamond andSchmitt Architects. They shared stories of years of research and project monitoring, and how living walls have the capacity to break down hundreds of different kinds of contaminants found in indoor air; they demonstrated how a biofilter can substantially reduce the need to bring in fresh air by generating its own clean air indoors.
One of my favorite presentations was next, Innovative and Cost Effective Biofilters for Residential Applications from Robert Cameron and Dr. Robert Berghage from Penn State University. They have an experimental site on campus as well as the one Rob Cameron built at his home using a combination of materials on site, some donated, and some leftover from experiments from other Penn State projects. They conducted studies showing that living systems do not need to be highly sophisticated to work beautifully.
Rob Cameron asks, How can we take wasterwater and make it a resource? Using plants, from food crops to ornamentals, he showed us how the living wall with “Living Columns” – basically vertical plastic corrugated tubes – act like a constructed wetland and can filter out pollutants from an entire household. At his own residence he integrated these living columns with a greenroof for downspouts and rain water harvesting, and combined a living wall with an extensive greenroof to provide a vertical garden for tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and other veggies.
By the way, George Irwin of Green Living Technologies (GLT) was scheduled to speak during this session, and was deemed a no-show. Since he’s a Contributing Editor here, Caroline texted him to see where he was – he answered that he had indeed let GRHC know early in the week that something major had come up and would not be able to make it.
That morning I also sat in on a couple of sessions from Local Interest – From Barn Raisings to Green Roof Raisings: Community-Built Green Roof was presented by Bryce Gauthier, Director of the Projects In Place Society. What a great story! Projects In Place has taken the concept from the old community-based barn raisings and applied it to building sustainable projects. Using almost 100 volunteers including BCIT students, this small non-profit installed a 500 sf greenroof in two days on top of a business on the edge of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Projects In Place Society posted their CitiesAlive PowerPoint on their website, make sure to see it.
I skipped Retrofitting Existing Buildings With Green Roofs by Dr. Karen Liu of Xero Flor International because I had already seen and loved her similar (I hope) presentation at 2009’s CitiesAlive! in Toronto. Instead, I listened in on the Expert Discussion- How Green IS Your Green Roof: Devising a LEED Style Credit System for Green Roofs – Challenges and Opportunities with Steven Peck, Kerry Ross, Dr. Robert Berghage and Chuck Friedrich of Carolina Stalite.
Talk about a charged subject! Some argued that we should not create yet another rating system, but should rally to make the highly universally accepted (yet sometimes controversial) U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)’s LEEDprogram work better for our industry in terms of rating greenroofs. Others argued that GRHC knows our subject best and that starting new made the most sense rather than trying to fix another existing product. Having both my LEED AP andGRP designations, I have opinions, but will share them in another post.
So even though I was extremely interested in this subject, I returned to the Design Track andLocal Interest to hear about The Visitor Centre Green Roof at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens from Ken Larsson of Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture and the lovely Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, which was a treat, indeed!
Cornelia is a force to be reckoned with, and her exuberance shone through the entire presentation. It is a fascinating project – 3/4 of the 20,000 sf roof is greened, while 1/4 is “blue;” the undulating roof is based upon the shape of a native orchid – this project would have fit nicely in our Top 10 List as an example of the #3 position,“Biomimicry as Eco-literacy and Holistic Design.” Maybe for 2011. Lunch on the Trade Show Floor followed, along with the Poster Sessions.
Next up was Haven’s and my session where we were right in the middle of The Big Picture View, and we were very pleased at the turnout. Kerry Ross started with her extremely informative Nordic Adventures: a field study of green roofs in Norway. She highlighted cold climate greenroofs from a recent Scandinavian trip; through her research and documentation of projects has been able to better promote greenroof design and maintenance within Canada.
We followed with our Top 10 List presentation, and it was jam packed! This was the first time we had co-presented together, and Virginia (Jennie) Russell from the University of Cincinnati, our moderator extraordinaire, kept us in-line with methodical announcements for us to pick up the pace. So, it was a bit rushed, but fun (see our PowerPoint here). So many great projects to show, so little time!
We were honored to be in the same session as Cornelia Oberlander, who followed us and presented along with Ross Dixon of Phillips FarevaagSmallenberg. They shared their experiences with the Rooftoptop Renewal – The Redevelopment of Robson Square – An Intensive Green Roof in Downtown Vancouver.
This iconic rooftop civic center courthouse complex and public plaza was originally completed in 1983 by Arthur Erickson Architects and landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander; replacement of the original waterproofing membrane and restoration of the plantings is currently underway, and is expected to be completed sometime within this year. Refurbishments included surveying to see which tree specimens would be saved and evaluating the best methods for removal, safe keeping during construction, and then replanting.
The Closing Plenary opened with its own lively Top 10 List invitation to join GRHC at the 9th Annual CitiesAlive 2011 in Philadelphia by members of the Philadelphia Local Host Committee. Co-hosted by the City of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the next Green Roof and Wall Conference will be held in the City of Brotherly Love from November 29 to December 3.
The Panel Discussion Peak Oil, Urban Farming and the Roofs and Walls of Our Cities: Creating a Future We Desire wrapped up the Conference. Delivered by visionary yet practical Keynote Speaker Greg Allen, PE, LEEP AP, of Sustainable Edge, the presentation was forward thinking but set in a very grim reality – we must release our bonds with oil and embrace sustainable energy strategies as well as develop local urban farming on our rooftops and walls to ensure food security – basically we need to explore alternative food options more intelligently.
Panelists included Thomas Mueller of the Canadian Green Building Council, Vancouver Councilor Andrea Reimer, KeithAgoada of Sky Vegetables and Jeff Bruce, and a lot of people raised their own concerns about food supply and quality control, organics, and infrastructure for urban agriculture in the sky. Greenroofs.com was definitely in sync, as Haven Kiers and I had Tower Oases as Skyrise Urban Ag in the 2010 #1 category for our Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof and Greenwall Design.
We enjoyed our Habitat Havens Tour the next day on Saturday, and especially our tour guide, the lively and informative Tyrel Sutton from Flynn Canada. We had a beautiful, clear day to roam around four rooftops (really three, more on that later) that were selected because they were designed to either replicate a specific ecosystem or to provide food for birds, butterflies, or bees. We were lucky because the tours on Tuesday were rainy – in fact, at least one was cancelled.
There are quite a few publically accessible projects around Vancouver, and the Local Host Committee put together a 9-stop Self-Guided Green Roof and Wall Tour list that was included in the program. We didn’t see much, but Caroline did – this is her photo of the ING Green Wall, left, designed by CitiesAlive exhibitor Green over Grey – Living Walls and Design Inc.
I would say there were maybe 700 people at CitiesAlive. With the exception of a few hiccups – spotty snacks, flimsy conference program, tour time changes - overall, I felt that Steven Peck and Green Roofs for Healthy Cities did a fantastic job of planning and executing this first “international” conference. Kind of funny since they’re Canadian, but this was the first time the conference was held outside of the U.S. Plus it was the first time under its new name – CitiesAlive. (As you’ll recall, the previous seven incarnations were titled “Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities.”)
And the Vancouver Local Host Committee (Rod Goy, Marita Luk, Andrea Martinello, Blair Bennett, Nicholas Rousseau, Dr. Katherine Dunster, Helen Goodland, Andrea Linsky, Andrea Kausel and Lyn Ross) should be commended, too, for their outstanding accomplishments and participation in this successful conference! Visit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ Acknowledgements page, where I borrowed this photo below:
In general, people were very happy with everything, with minor grumblings about not enough food at the Opening Plenary and dessert on the Trade Show floor after the Awards of Excellence Luncheon. Also, for the first time, CD’s of the conference proceedings were not available, but you can purchase video recordings of the over 60 speakers that go along with each’s PowerPoint presentation (“Full Compilation Streaming Media – Audio Synched to PPT”) from GRHC for $120.
In reflection, we should be happy the conference agenda is so big – I’m sure Greenbuild had similiar growing pains, talk about a massive, multi-day, multi-track program! Or ASLA, or AIA, for that matter. It simply, very clearly, illustrates the tremendous growth of our greenroof and greenwall industry, and acceptance of building integrated greenery into mainstream design. It is impossible to attend each presentation, so it’s great that GRHC developed the Living Architecture Academy – an online learning center with technical papers from all the past conferences and proceedings. Having such a resource at our fingertips is inmeasurable.
Regarding the Trade Show, we’ve all noticed a trend of some past exhibitors not exhibiting lately, sometimes due to the challenging economy, scheduling conflicts, or feeling resources could be better used elsewhere. So, I would also just like to add that all of us who are members of GRHC should pay a big thanks to all of the companies who have exhibited in the past, and who faithfully continue to do so. Being international for many of us, for Vancouver it was more cumbersome and expensive to ship everything, but conferences couldn’t be held without the support of exhibitors and sponsors. I would encourage everyone doing business within our industry to exhibit and work together to make our committment and exposure even better. Here are a few more Trade Show pics:
One of the very best things about all these conferences is the chance to meet new colleagues and see old friends from across the world and catch up on each other’s lives and happenings – we were happy to do this with the always effervescent Dusty Gedge of Livingroofs.org, Kerry Ross and her husband Bob, Chuck Friedrich and Ernie Higgins of ItSaul Natural – Mr. Natural (also from Atlanta), Contributing Editor Dr. Bill Retzlaff of SIUe, and too many other folks to mention! Many of our “usual” German colleagues were missing (Manfred Köhler and Roland Appl, among others), probably due to the numerous previous international congresses where we saw them, but it was great seeing several folks from the City of Portland’s Beaurau of Environmental Services and lots of international students, too.
I wish I had had more time with a bunch of people – the always wonderful Maureen Connelly from BCIT, Jennie Russell, and Andrea Martinello of N.A.T.S., for example, but there will be other conferences!
I’m sorry I couldn’t attend Maureen’s panel session of Expert Discussion: Taking Green Roofs and Walls to the Next Level in British Columbia – A Pathway to the Future! because it conflicted with our Top 10 presentation session. It included the fanstastic Deputy City Manager of the City of Vancouver, Sadhu Johnston – previously Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Chief Environmental Officer and Deputy Chief of Staff, where he headed up much of their greenroof program.
In my opinion, Maureen Connelly is the true greenroof champion in Vancouver with her many years of dedication and research at British Columbia Institute of Technology’s Centre for the Advancement of Green Roof Technology, and should be commended for an outstanding job – keep up the great work, and thanks BCIT for all that you do! (See their project profile in The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database here.) Their Mission Statement:
“The mission of the BCIT Centre for Architectural Ecology – Collaborations in Green Roofs and Living Walls is to conduct world-class, innovative research on green roof and living wall systems and to provide research-based education across disciplines, to students and practitioners.”
The BCIT Centre is evaluating the function and performance of extensive greenroofs and living walls in the rainforest climate of coastal B.C. Through collaborations with industry, government and academic partners, their vision is to help advance the widespread adoption of these technologies in this region. It would have been great to have visited the research facility, but, just like any working trip, there simply wasn’t enough time. Make sure to read BCIT’s “750 attend BCIT-co-hosted green roof conference” of December 13, 2010, where you can also see a huge gallery of photos.
We were here five nights and every day was devoted to conference events – although we didn’t get out to see the city and surroundings, many of our friends did (like Caroline and Janet Faust of JDR Enterprises). Caroline was fortunate enough to go up on a seaplane and took this wonderful aerial photo of Vancouver, above. Like most people, she also visited Whistler Mountain, one of North America’s top ski and snowboard resorts (and snapped this fun snow picture left).
The two greenroofed places I really wanted to visit but didn’t was the awesome Vancouver Public Library (also known as Library Square Building) with its pioneering rooftop built in 1995, and the fantastic 2010 Olympic andParalympic Winter Games Olympic Village, also known as Southeast False Creek and Millennium Water with about 287,000 sf total of greenroofs.
Read my 2.17.10 Sky Gardens post about it here. We featured Millennium Water in 2007’s Top 10 List in the #1 category – Visionary Proposed Projects since the City of Vancouver mandated that at least 50% of the buildings should be covered in green. Next time!
Not content to leave things alone, upon leaving the Vancouver International Airport (YVR), I had to take a bunch of photos of the 17-meter high YVR Canada Line Station 4 Living Wall, designed by the talented Randy Sharp of Sharp & Diamond Landscape Architecture. As you may know, the Canada Line is Vancouver’s new rapid transit rail link connecting YVR to downtown Vancouver, and visitors are greeted by this beautiful green wall of green and silver euonymus, mondo grass, and licorice fern. Read my 3.26.10 Sky Gardens post about it here.
We will defintely return to Vancouver, B.C. as a vacation destination, where we can take in all the sights and locations of this gorgeous city at our leisure! That’s it for now.
If you haven’t already, make sure to read our December, 2010 Guest Feature Article by Janet Faust of JDR Enterprises, “CitiesAlive! 2010,” where she did a great job in describing her reflections of this eighth yearly conference. Her account of compares the experience to a fine wine and Janet comments how these Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ conferences have gotten better with age! If you’d like to present at the 9th Annual CitiesAlive! Green Roof and Wall Conference in Philadelphia, the Call for Paper Abstracts will be released in a few weeks.
Next up will be a series of posts about individual tour sites from each of these unique cities we had the pleaure of visiting last year: Mexico City, Singapore, and the lovely Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
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!
I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Bruce, president of Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company, Chair of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) and the GRHC Training and Accreditation Committee which developed the Green Roof Professional – or GRP – Accreditation program, last week on May 19, 2009. Jeff and many others have devoted countless hours to developing a rigorous and comprehensive offering to the marketplace, and I wanted to learn more about the program itself as well as Jeff and his company.
Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company has been around for close to 30 years and has a strong reputation with projects involving landscape architecture, comprehensive master planning, site design, recreation planning, urban design and more – offering design and specialized technical support including irrigation engineering and green roof technology.
Linda: Jeff, please tell us about your Company’s program as a professional firm – its overarching mission and goals, and how sustainability fits in?
Jeff: Well, we’re a bit of a unique firm in so far as in the past we’ve incorporated scientists and particularly agronomy in our practice area which gave us a bit of a technology focus. So we supply other landscape architectural groups, as well as architects and engineers, highly specialized services and green technologies, greenroofs and things of that nature. We have a nationwide practice that helps support that little niche we’ve been fortunate to find.
Linda: I did notice that you’re definitely national in scope and your company has been involved with many award-winning greenroof projects such as the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park, Soldier Field, and more. Can you briefly describe some of these experiences?
Jeff: Yes, they’re some of the more rewarding projects we’ve ever worked on. At Lurie Garden we were the irrigation consultant and did some soil consulting for Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd., the lead landscape architects. That was a very beautiful project, as well as the North Burnham Park renovation at Soldier Field where we did all the soil consulting, turf consulting, and green roof consulting for Peter Schaudt’s office. We’ve also had three other greenroof awards for projects we’ve been fortunate enough to work on, so we’ve been able to find the right clients that allowed us to work on these exceptional projects.
Linda: You’ve had a lot of wide array of awards and honors, so kudos to you and your firm.
Jeff: It’s finding the right client that wants to do the right project and gives us a little latitude to be creative.
Linda: True, and I always tell people I think that it’s up to us as designers to inform our clients, to let them know all the possibilities that are out there.
Jeff: We also have a phrase, “You can’t save an owner from himself!” So having the right combination is certainly a blessing when it comes to assembling a team and getting the right individuals involved in it.
Linda: The 7th Annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference is coming up next week, and Atlanta will offer the inaugural Green Roof Professional Accreditation test on June 5. The ad says that “by 2013, the overall green building market is forecasted to more than double. Be ready to embrace these changing times and become a recognized professional by taking the Green Roof Professional Accreditation Exam.” Before we get into the program itself, though, how did you first become involved with Green Roofs for Healthy Cities?
Jeff: Well, it goes back probably 6 or 7 years – when we submitted an abstract for the Washington, D.C. conference and the abstract at the time was “The Weakest Link in the Delivery of Green Roof Projects.” It got the attention of the executive director, Steven Peck, who at the time was looking for someone to chair an implementation workshop which was the 201, so he tracked me down and asked me if I’d chair that taskforce to write the GRHC 201 Implementation course.
Linda: Now that you’ve given me the genesis of your participation, how about a little bit of the process you and the team experienced – the vision and collaboration.
Jeff: It was quite an extensive process in so far as developing the course work and the manuals, all four courses, and then the first step in the GRP process was an occupational analysis by a task force established in 2005. I believe about 30 professionals met in Toronto and outlined all of the needs, skills and knowledge base that a green roof professional would require, and out of that came the occupational analysis which ended up weighting the importance of each of those pieces of knowledge that a professional would possess in that process. Then from that was the actual test accreditation exam committee that was assembled, and another 30 or 40 people at the Baltimore Conference sat down for an extra day with the industry experts and wrote test questions for the exam. Prometric was the group that assisted us with developing the test. They did a little training and then they reviewed all of the questions for accuracy and appropriate technical formatting.
The pool of test questions was brought back to the committee, and they went through each question one by one; a couple hundred test questions were narrowed down to the most logical choices. Final questions went back through another Prometric review. There was a third review of the test questions with another select group of technical experts, and after about 18 months of development we‘ve gotten to the point that we’re now prepared to roll out the test and have really become comfortable on the validity of the questions and the type of information being used for the exam.
Linda: Was there any input from other organizations or associations?
Jeff: There was a large peer review of all of the course material content, which really serves the basis of the GRP exam. There was also a number of individual people in particular expertise areas of the industry that were targeted as independent peer reviewers for us. We looked at the roofing industry, the roofing manufacturing and landscape contracting, roofing consultants and landscape architects, and assembled a team of peer reviewers that went through the process and gave us really good input to further clarify the questions and content.
Linda: I was wondering if it was hard to get buy in from fellow colleagues, or if you encountered any resistance from any particular contingents in the industry?
Jeff: Believe it or not, not really. There is always this discussion and debate about accreditation and self-regulation. I think everyone in the industry recognized the value of education and having a designation that helps the public understand that this particular individual has a certain understanding of the course material that would provide them a qualification in the marketplace.
Linda: Here in North America, we’ve been designing modern greenroofs since the mid 1990’s and as a result we have millions of square feet on roofs greened already. Some people might say this program is unnecessary, especially to those who have been designing these living roofs, and that it’s simply a justification to promote the professional association and make some money. I know the GRP is a measure of knowledge of established best practices, and that with the designation we can distinguish ourselves in the marketplace as well. Why do you believe that the greenroof industry needs an accreditation program now?
Jeff: Green roofs are somewhat unique as a practice area because they entail such a wide variety of disciplines that it’s very difficult or virtually impossible for any individual to be an expert in every aspect of the industry.
Linda: I agree!
Jeff: We’ve sort of coined the phrase that the green roof industry is complemented by two halves of the equation – the black arts and the green arts – and so when we’re looking at the accreditation program, we had to look at those skills and competencies that are required in order to understand the delivery process and not necessarily trying to test a roofer on Latin species of Sedums or a horticulturalist on the melting point of a certain asphaltic roofing compound. So because of this wide range of knowledge, I think the GRP designation facilitates the ability of the public to understand how to apply these types of green technologies.
Again, it is a voluntary program in that those who choose not to participate will still be able to practice in the field, so it’s not an obstacle for them. From my perspective, it is a celebration of a technical body of knowledge an individual holds.
Linda: Well, that’s a good way to look at it.
Jeff: It is sort of a personal badge of commitment that we value this type of technology to the point that we’re willing to sit for the exam and to promote our understanding of it. If you look at all other accreditation programs, they’ve run into many of the same criticisms that they’re a self-promotion vehicle and that they are self regulating a minority of individuals. If you follow other programs over a period of time, you will find that the association side and the accreditation side typically become separate organizations at some point in the future.
We have seen that through ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) and CLARB (Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards), and even with the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council); they’ve migrated to two associations as the accreditation program gained momentum. Programs also gain sophistication and complexity. In the beginning the association is a strong support component and nurturing component in order to get an accreditation program on its feet and to get it widely accepted into public domain.
Linda: Yeah, I agree with you. What types of companies or professionals would you like to see come on board?
Jeff: We did not try to restrict anyone that is interested and capable of demonstrating sufficient knowledge about this to sit for the exam and become accredited. I think it would require a certain degree of knowledge and background about the construction industry and the construction delivery process in order to be successful. It tends to be a logical choice for architects, engineers, roofing consultants, roofing manufacturers, landscape contractors that have an interest in green roofs – or general contractors, building management, those types of individuals that have an understanding and sequencing of the construction process.
This knowledge base that we’re looking at is really specialized applied knowledge, so it’s an overlay of what an individual might already need to understand about contracting law, projects, understanding critical path of construction sequencing and how to measure performance and success in the field. So, although we didn’t limit who takes the exam, we tried to work off some industry assumptions and direct the materials so that it was specifically for unique aspects of green roofs in the construction market.
Linda: Getting back to landscape architecture, the profession encompasses a broad field, embracing a wide range of interests, with many of us gravitating towards one particular area, greenroofs, for example. As a landscape architect, do you feel specialization will eventually kill or possibly dilute our profession?
Jeff: I’ve been involved in ASLA as a trustee for many years, and have a long involvement in ASLA. I understand the dichotomy involved in specialization. Over the years landscape architects have always struggled to define their identity because we are so diverse and we practice in so many different phases in society. In a technologically increasing community and environment, it is absolutely necessary that landscape architects and other professions maintain higher levels of specialization as certain aspects of the industry get more and more complex. I think that’s a natural aspect. When I look at landscape architects, I am very hopeful that because of their common basis of understanding and education, they’ll still be able to maintain a dialogue and a connection with landscape architecture even as the specialties continue to get more granular and complex.
I view landscape architects collectively as contextualists in that we, in solving problems, seek out other professions. We seek out connections with the past, seek out connections with ecology, place culture and try to mend and heal places. This reaching out as a popular culture facilitates us working as teams and embraces a recognition of diversity within the profession.
Actually, 30- 40% of our consulting work is with other landscape architects, and it is probably the most rewarding work we do because there is an affinity of understanding. There’s a similar basis of attempting to resolve the project. Specialization is the way for us to get better at what we do but still maintain a common core of landscape architecture. I’m hopeful, so very hopeful, that we will be able to continue to embrace other specializations and keep our identity under the umbrella of landscape architecture.
Linda: Well, I have to say that was very eloquent! I can’t think off the top of my head like that!
Jeff: The way I got to be fellow (FASLA) is I got involved in Missouri licensure of landscape architects, and we fought a very, very tough battle that took close to 12 years to get the legislation passed. As a result we learned every tactic in the world, politically, every backroom maneuver, and we got so good at it that I was appointed to the registration assistance team at ASLA national. As part of the registration assistance team, we travelled around and gave legislative workshops for other states. I was involved with six states that gained licensure. We dealt with turf battles, strategy of defining work, specializations, and tiered accreditation of licensing. I’ve been thinking about it for about 25 years. So my elegant statement has been constructed over a long time.
Linda: Then you have a good memory!
Jeff: Well, yeah, and there’s a few things you’d like to forget about that process – I always equated it to getting your cuff caught in a piece of machinery and it just dragged you through the machinery. During the process it was like I never thought if I’d joined this committee it meant a 25-year commitment.
Linda: Right, it kind of takes over your life. I know people on various GRHC committees who would say the same thing!
Jeff: Exactly. What attracted that organization to me, I think, was the interesting perspective about licensure and accreditation and what that might mean. The whole opportunity to look at not a singularly educated vocation, but a very multi-disciplinary organization to establish a knowledge base of information was intriguing to me. It’s very similar to the USGBC model but not as expansive.
Linda: What unique attributes do you think landscape architects will offer as a Green Roof Professional?
Jeff: Good question. Well, I alluded to it a little bit previously, which was their propensity for team management and team building, working with other professionals. The rooftop is an extremely hostile environment in which to try and grow vegetation, and more realistically in trying to create sustainable, restorative ecosystems. I think the landscape architects’ skill set is perfectly aligned with those unique challenges that occur on the roof, working with constructed materials, working with natural systems, working with water, harvesting soils, and all of those things provide very unique attributes for landscape architects.
I think each of the professions that we have targeted and involved in the process also provide those very unique but different attributes. Roofing consultants – there is an enormous amount of technical data and expertise required in waterproofing of structures, and roofing details and flashing/counterflashing details, for example.
Linda: Right, and that’s going to be my hardest area to take – the 301!
Jeff: Well, I can tell you that the trepidation is equally split – if you’re part of the green arts, you fear the black arts, and if you’re part of the black arts you equally fear the green arts. But I sincerely hope that everyone that comes out of the exam really feels that the material has been well vetted, has been well thought out and then represents a reasonable representation of the skill set we need in the generalist form. I think we’ll strike the appropriate balance between those two divergent areas of specializations.
Linda: Getting back to the Accreditation Program, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is basing the GRP exam on the four Green Roof Courses, the 101, 201, 301, and 401, but is it a requirement that people have taken these classes already or can anyone just walk in and wing it?
Jeff: Anyone could, in fact, sit down and take the test if they so desire. We recognize that some people may not have the opportunity in their schedule to sit for all the courses throughout the year, so the course manuals are also available for purchase if you wanted to read through them. As part of the legal defensibility of the exam, we had to have citable references for each of the questions and all of the questions came out of the course materials.
Linda: Can you give us some of the specifics of what to expect on the exam, like the number of questions and how it long it might take?
Jeff: There will be 100 questions, and we’re allowed 2 hours.
Linda: And Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is using the exam from the launch here in Atlanta as the benchmark of sorts for future tests, is that correct?
Jeff: Yes, part of the process that we will go through with Prometric is a validation of the test questions by the first hundred or so exam takers. So there would be, again, another quality assurance process whereby we would look aggregately at all the exam questions and see if there’s an anomaly in answers and responses so that we can make it again as fair and as defensible as possible.
Linda: Can you give our readers any pointers or last minute advice before we take the test?
Jeff: Well, I think, again, we tried to focus on those pieces of information that are most valuable for the professional as they facilitate teaming and delivery of green roofs. One of the very important aspects of that was certainly the best management practices that were called out in each of the manuals. So the best management practices are areas where we focused importance on, and you’ll see a number of questions that emerge from those particular recommendations.
Linda: Very good, I haven’t signed up yet, just because I’m always late for everything!
Jeff: Well, there’s always a percentage of the population that are like that so we’re looking at a really good representation of “first adopters” we’re calling them that are going to come out and represent the profession. It should be noted that there are going to be three additional exams that will be given around the country. You can check the GRHC website for the locations and times of the other exams.
Linda: Anything else?
Jeff: I would just encourage everyone to come down to Atlanta and the conference - we’ve got some extraordinary tracks that we’re looking at, one of which is food production on rooftops – rooftop agriculture – which I think is going to be a significant emerging market for us and it should be a lot of fun.
I appreciate the opportunity!
Linda: Very good, Jeff, and it really has been my pleasure to speak with you today!
For more info on the GRP, visit the FAQ’s section from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. I hope many professionals from multi-disciplinary fields take the challenge and get their Green Roof Accreditation – I’ll be there, too:
The Green Roof Professional (GRP) Accreditation Exam will be held on Friday, June 5, 2009 at the 7th Annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference from 4:00 – 6:00 pm at the Conference venue, the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in the Hanover Room, C-E.
I hope many of you are traveling to southern Germany to particpate in the 2nd International Green Roof Congress in Stuttgart-Nürtingen on May 25-27 – it’s sure to be amazing. Please send us your thoughts, comments and photos for posting afterwards!
It’s hard to believe Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) has put on this event yearly since 2003, debuting in Chicago – a great city with a great visionary mayor in Richard Daley, Jr. We’ve participated every year by exhibiting, I’ve sometimes presented papers or a poster session, attended a class (or facilitated one in the case of Portland, OR with the inaugural Green Roof 101 in 2004). This year we’re really proud to be a Sponsor of the Conference along with The Home Depot Foundation, American Hydrotech, Tremco, Green Roof Blocks and Sweetwater Brewing Company. I think the industry has come a long way through the hard, dedicated work of many, and although there is still much to do, I’m confident the greenroof community will continue to thrive within the eco-friendly world of planning, design, and construction.
It’s been fun (and time consuming, although I have had to miss some of the meetings) to have participated on the Local Atlanta Host Committee, specifically the Tours Sub-Committee, but it’s been time well spent at Southface Energy Institute. In fact, I’m attending the last meeting before the conference this afternoon to go over last minute items, including the tours, which I’ll be talking about in detail in a few days – but you should sign up for one of five guided tours, four on Tuesday, June 2 and one on Saturday, June 6 (another option is a Walking Tour at your leisure) – and I should point out that I’ll be your host on Tour #2: Goodbye City, Hello ‘Burbs, on Tuesday, June 2, 2009, from 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm.
Tours, Golf and the Launch of the GRP
The varied tours are a great highlight, as is the first annual GRHC Golf Tournament at the Bobby Jones Golf Course, the many education courses and workshops, not to mention the awesome speaker line-up, and the opportunity to become one of the first to receive your GRP – Green Roof Professional – designation! The launch of this long-awaited accreditation program will be on June 5, and I plan to take it, too.
In fact, I just interviewed Jeff Bruce, FASLA, LEED, ASIC of Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company, who is the Chair of the GRP. Look for his insightful interview early next week, where I asked him about his company, his involvement with Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, and specifically the lengthy process he and the team experienced – the vision and initial plan; reasons why we need an accreditation program; overall considerations and requirements; how things evolved…all leading up to the Atlanta Conference and the inaugural testing.
Have you looked at the Agenda yet? It really is a full line up of experts from across North America and the world. The three-day conference will consist of plenary and specialized sessions focused on four main topic areas:
1. Policies and Programs to Support Green Roofs
2. Green Roof Design and Implementation
3. Research and Technical Papers on Green Roof Performance
4. “On the Roof With …” Networking & Information Forums on Current Green Roof Topics with Industry Experts
Note: Make sure to see the 2009 installment of Haven Kiers, our Design Editor and my Top 10 List of Hot Trendsin Greenroof Design, held on the morning of June 5 in Track 1 – Case Studies and Design, SESSION 4, from 8:00 am – 9:30 am in Room: Hanover C – E.
The 2009 full-delegate pass includes:
• Access to over 50 presentations by green roof industry leaders
• Free pass to the Industry Trade Show featuring more than 75 exhibitors showcasing Green Roof Products and Services
• Access to more than 15 Poster Sessions
• One Copy of the Official Conference Proceedings CD-ROM featuring the peer-reviewed Speaker Papers (retail value $75)
• Browse and Lunch (June 4) and Awards of Excellence Luncheon (June 5)
Missing some classes? Take your pick here (additional charge):
Wednesday, June 3: GRHC Training Courses (8:30 am — 5:-00 pm)
Green Roof Design 101: Introductory Course
Green Roof Infrastructure: Design and Installation 201
Green Roof Infrastructure: Waterproofing and Drainage 301
Green Roof Infrastructure: Plants and Growing Medium 401
Friday, June 5: Green Roof Profession (GRP) Accreditation Exam — 4:00 — 6:00 pm
A Trade Show not to be Missed!
Also, don’t miss out on the largest industry Trade Show in North America. Talk to the experts about their products, projects, benefits and solutions for common greenroof and wall challenges. And please come by and visit us on the Trade Show Floor at Booth #310.
For a complete overview of the Conference program, and to register for any of the events, please visit the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities website at www.greenroofs.org. For sponsorship and trade show opportunities please contact Jennifer Sprout jsprout@greenroofs.org or (416) 971-4494 Ext 229. Come join the learning and celebrations of excellence at GRHC’s 7th International gathering!
- Nicole D’Alessandro of examiner.com, says “Greenroofs are growing.” The West Woods Nature Center served as the pilot green roof project for the Geauga Park District to study the benefits of greenroof construction and technology and the list of greenroofs across Northeast Ohio is growing with projects like the Cleveland Environmental Center in Ohio City, which included a portion of green roofing, and with the help of its Environmental Science students, the Cleveland State University’s Recreation Center got a 7,000 sq ft greenroof. There are many benefits to green roofs like: decreased stormwater runoff; decreased impermeable surfaces, which helps reduce the urban heat island effect; and increased insulation in cold climates and absorption of heat in hot climates, which affects a building’s energy use. Greenroofs can be beautiful and offer a wonderful habitat for wildlife while also extending the life of a roof. Any concern of installing a greenroof can be taken away with the help of professionals.
In reflection, we should be happy the conference agenda is so big – I’m sure 
I’m sorry I couldn’t attend Maureen’s panel session of Expert Discussion: Taking Green Roofs and Walls to the Next Level in British Columbia – A Pathway to the Future! because it conflicted with our Top 10 presentation session. It
Not content to leave things alone, upon leaving the Vancouver International Airport (YVR), I had to take a bunch of photos of the 17-meter high 
I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Bruce, president of 
