We’ve begun the Greenroofs.com website redesign starting with the Homepage. Our new design is about improving page navigation and making it easier for our visitors to find the content they want. More white space has been created and we changed the font type and size for better reading. We also kept in mind that search engines like to have a sense of what role a page plays in the bigger picture of our site, and we think that this has been accomplished.
HERE’S WHAT’S NEW:
Project of the Week The Project of the Weeksection has been moved to the top of the left side in order to attract the first look of our visitors. Well-documented eyetoolanalysis has revealed “hotspots” where visitors looked the most on a webpage – and people look most at the left top side.This visual image of the featured greenroof project should instigate additional interest and thus a click-through that brings the latest project profile to the forefront in a separate window. As you probably know, the project profile contains various photos and detailed content describing many important and relevant aspects of the case study. The data associated with these profiles is administered on our MySQL Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database via PHP scripts. Our database currently has 1,022 project profiles with many more beingadded every day. By the way, the content of this database is currently indexed by Google and Google News – which means when visitors search online, the results page will contain links to the data from our database.
The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database has been open to the world since 2004, evolving from the “International and North American Case Studies” portion of Linda Velazquez’ initial 1999 independent research study. Readmore about how Linda selects the Project of the Week.
The Greenroof Directory Visitors looking for companies to work with on their projects now have a quick search capability from the homepage, direct to the Greenroof Directory.
The Greenroof Directory is also a MySQL database which containsessential information (contact, products, services, photos, etc.) about Manufacturers, Suppliers, Professional Services, and Organizations in the greenroof industry.
All this information is searchable from the main Directory page and now, for the first time, from our homepage with our new quick search feature. The most popular maincategories are highlighted in this new search box, and you can also access more categories from here, too.
By the way, the content in this directory is also indexed by Google and Google News.
In a guest featurearticle submitted by Adam Henige, a Web consultant, he states “An analysis of search engine data for 2009 clearly demonstrates a rising trend in the general public’s awareness of and interest in green roofs. Looking at these estimates for a cross section of the most popular general roofing terms and green roofing terms performed on search engines, there was growth in both areas, but by November the monthly search volume had grown only 51 percent for general roofing terms while green roofing terms had grown 155 percent.”
No one knows the secret formula that search engines use in order to optimize a particular site and improve rankings, but fortunately for us, we have enjoyed the number one spot in all the top search engines for the most significant keywords in our industryfor over 10 years. In addition to creating lots of organic content on a consistent basis, we also have a high number of sites that considerus a great resource and thus add links back to us, which also improves search results positioning and site PageRank. So, if you want your company to be found online, make sure you get listed with us (shameless plug!).
Video player An embedded video player showing the latest videos from our greenroofsTV channel on YouTube has been moved to the top right side for better viewing. YouTube is the most popular video hosting and sharing service and is owned by Google. Their service lets users view and upload video files, and in addition to hosting videos, the service lets users rate videos, add comments, and subscribe to their favorite producers.
Public videos uploaded by YouTube online users are selected by us based on their relevance to the greenroof and greenwall industry, and then added to the respective playlist that feed the various video players throughout our entire website. We encourage all of you to upload your videos to showcase and increase your exposure by sharing experiences, projects, interviews, tours, product demonstrations – with our marketplace and the rest of the world.
Industry News, ResearchLinks & Industry Support The extremely long Industry Newscontent that used to be displayed in the center column has been consolidated to a short list of the latest news with links to a new separate page fully dedicated to all the industry news associated with the greenroof and greenwall community.
The ResearchLinks section on the Navigation Bar has now been replaced simply with Industry, which now houses Industry News, Industry Support and ResearchLinks. Industry Support used to be under Greenroofs 101, which was the basis for Linda’s 1999 paper and Greenroofs.com.
Guest Features You’ll find them now in a highlighted box displaying the latest two features with links to the full articles. If you are an expert on a particular greenroof or greenwall design topic, you may submit your content to our Editor and it will be reviewed for publishing on our site – just email your information to: submissions@greenroofs.com.
NewsLinks The long list of NewsLinkshas also been reduced to a shorter one of the latest few, with links for more news on our page dedicated to all our NewsLinks. We have also added a section that will highlight a particular event during the month – like the 2010 Olympics, Earth Hour, etc. Make sure you visit often for all your industry news!
Contributing Editor Columns Similar to Guest Features, another highlighted section now houses the latest from our contributing editors, prominently displayed within the body of the homepage with links to the respective columns.
Other changes · The Google Search Box that allows for searching our entire website is now more visible.
· The banners on the top and bottom of the page rotate randomly with a fade transition instead of the old slide in a sequential order. This will allow for all of our advertisers’ banner ads to have equal exposure to our visitors.
· Social Media icons are now top and center for easy clicks. Make sure you stay connected with us by following us on Twitter, becoming a fan of our Facebook wall, joining our Greenroofs.com Network group in LinkedIn, subscribing to the greenroofsTV channel on YouTube and our monthly eNewsletter.
· Finally, the bottom of the page is now filled with small logos from all our sponsors linkable to their respective color brochures in The Greenroof Directory filled with lots of pertinent information about their products and services.
We’re still in our tweaking stages, and have a lot more work to do to the rest of our site, but we welcome your feedback for what we havedone so far. Keep us informed of all your greenroof and greenwall happenings, and stay on top of the greenroof world with Greenroofs.com! We look forward to hearing back from you.
The Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database has been up and open to the world since 2004, evolving from the “International and North American Case Studies” portion of my initial 1999 independent research study “Greenroof Technology: A Viable Roofing Alternative” that was the basis for Greenroofs.com. The initial 30 or so profiles have grown to over a thousand, and we feel sharing these is an important learning experience for us all.
Our Project of the Week feature started in March, 2006 when we selected the profile of Phillips Eco-Enterprise Center (PEEC), above, submitted by Peter MacDonagh of The Kestrel Design Group. The idea stemmed from the notion that a weekly highlight showcasing very different living roofs would stimulate interest in both the industry at large and our Projects Database – which it has! Since then we’ve shown about 190 vegetated roofs and in 2008 we displayed our first Greenwall Project of the Week, Anthropologies, below, submitted by George Irwin of Green Living Technologies.
I often get asked, how do I pick each greenroof/wall case study out of and over so many other profiles? The answer is actually very simple – at its core, I’m basically choosing completed profiles. That means all the fields are completed, there is a lot of descriptive text, and all 11 of the photos/graphics are there. The emotionally and physically attractive, sexy part about living architecture is the living part – the planting design - and people want to see photos!
After the aesthetics of the profile itself, I try and alternate U.S. and international projects, although it doesn’t always come out that way. My goal is to show different types (extensive, intensive) and various applications, too (research, municipal, multi/single-family residential, commercial, educational) along with system types (conventional built-in place, modular, custom).
So if you’d like your company or organization’s project highlighted, check to see if we at least have an initial case study up, if not, send one in either by filling out the easy online form here, or by sending us an email to: projects@greenroofs.com. If we do have your project listed, review it and send us any edits or additions along with updated graphics and/or photos (each profile can hold up to 11).
When possible, I’ll highlight a project that has something going on that week or month, for example I like to select profiles whose city is having a conference at the moment, or as in the case of this week’s project, a Green Building Tour this Sunday:
Our current Greenroof Project of the Week features the Sweetwater Creek State Park Visitors’ Center and Museum in Lithia Springs, GA. Set within a 2,500-acre conservation area, this beautiful LEED™ Platinum certified building was the first to achieve this rating in the southeastern United States. (Click on the project title to see who was involved in this very green building.) And if you’re in the area, you can join a Green Building Tour of the Sweetwater Creek State Park Visitors’ Center and Museum this upcoming Sunday, February 14, 2010 from 2 PM to 3:30 PM and learn about sustainability, green buildings and what makes this one so special for just $5 plus $5 parking; for more info call: 770-732-5871.
The Greenroof/Greenwall Project of the Week feature on Greenroofs.com is a great way to have readers – researchers, students, media, and potential clients - see what’s been done, where, how, and by whom. You’ll always find a new one on the Home Page every Sunday afternoon – just click on either the photo itself or the “Where in the Greenroof World?” hyperlink below to learn all about each unique greenroof or greenwall.
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!
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.
In all the hustle and bustle of editing feature articles, posting news stories, upcoming events, industry news and project profiles, amid other publisher duties, I sometimes forget to acknowledge the outside accomplishments (from Greenroofs.com) of our contributing editors… This oversight will be addressed as one of my upcoming New Year’s resolutions, but for now let’s start with George Irwin, our Green Wall Editor:
George Irwin, C.E.O. of Green Living Technologies, discusses the design of an A-frame planter his company makes.
George was recently interviewed for the “Business of Green” article by Ken Belson titled “The Rooftop Garden Climbs Down a Wall” that appeared in the Energy & Environment section on nytimes.com of November 18 and the New York Times print version on November 19, 2009. One of his Green Living Technologies‘ living wall products was featured when NYC architect Brad Zizmor had an edible wall installed on the backyard deck of his first-floor Manhattan apartment.
The article really delves into the “Business of Green” – costs are included and Barthelmes Manufacturing Company, the sheet metal fabricator, was also highlighted as well as Kari Elwell Katzander, a landscape designer who designed the 3-panel green wall. Although the author points out that these small greening solutions can be costly, he refers to another of George’s collaborations, the Urban Farming Food Chain green wall project in Los Angeles, and says:
“Mr. Irwin has shown that edible walls can work on a larger scale. At four locations in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, there are walls with more than 4,000 plants growing: tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, spinach, leeks, even baby watermelon. At one location, a homeless shelter, residents tend to a six-foot-high, 30-foot-long wall, eating some food they harvest and selling the rest.
The project, urban farming advocates say, is just the start of something larger.”
Make sure to also click on the slide show “Edible Walls of Green” – there are 12 awesome photos of the Zizmor wall, a living wall at the College of Applied Sciences and Technology at Rochester Institute of Technology, and cool manufacturing shots, with just a few below:
Oh yeah, while I’m am it, I should tell you that George Irwin won the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Award of Excellence in the Green Walls category this year. Presented on June 5, 2009 at the 7th Annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards, and Trade Show at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, he won for his involvement and contribution to the Urban Farming Food Chain green walls, truly a dedicated community affair of residents, manufacturers, students, professors, activists, and designers. We were very proud of him, of course, and I should have blogged about this very prestigious accomplishment after the conference, but somehow didn’t.
I should also probably mention that because of his work with this project, George has also been on Good Morning America and invited to the White House, too. I am a forgetful editor, indeed! George writes about this exciting, worthy, and humbling experience in his upcoming Green Walls column, which should be up very soon. Kudos, George!
Last month’s Cities Alive! Congress offered many opportunities to tour many examples of Toronto’s various green infrastructure practices, including greenroofs, green walls, and green streets. Christine and I both shared our experiences on two different “sustainable tours,” and now we invite you on a visual photo tour of six locales visited from a German colleague of ours. Roland Appl, International Green Roof Association (IGRA) President & ZinCo’s Technical Director, joined the guided walking Tour A: “Spectacular Green Roofs in Downtown Toronto” and shares these photos with us from October 21, 2009:
Thanks, Roland! I’ve created some initial profiles of each of these projects for The Greenroof Projects Database, and we’d appreciate if you have additional information and you’d like to share with us and the international greenroof community! Please send additional text, designers/manufacturers of record, greenroof area, and photos to: projects@greenroofs.com.
Aramis and I had a great time in Toronto last week for the inaugural 2009 CitiesAlive! World Green Roof Infrastructure Congress~ what a wonderful city! It’s clean, green, and at the moment has the most progressive greenroof policy in North America. From the airport we rode along the waterfront and were impressed on how green the city really is – we enjoyed the many beautifully landscaped parks with an abundance of trees in full autumn color, swaying grasses and flowering perennials. Tons of people were out enjoying the cool, crisp fall day with strollers, jogging, or just relaxing and taking in the views of Lake Ontario. The prominent Toronto Hydro/WindShare wind turbine, ”North America’s first urban wind turbine,” was truly an impressive sight to see at Toronto’s Exhibition Place, a showcase for sustainability. And the many architectural styles and hustle and bustle of downtown Toronto were a pleasure.
At the Congress we encountered many of the “usual greenroof suspects” we know from Canada, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. and met some very interesting new people, too, from South Korea and Spain (to name a couple) in the various speaker sessions, on the Toronto Sustainable Bus Tour sponsored by Tremco and Bioroof, and at the CitiesAlive! Closing Gala at the Toronto Botanical Garden where we all enjoyed a lively and tasty Mexican Fiesta celebration.
The theme of the Congress was “Green Roof Infrastructure: A Global Solution to Climate Change” and began on Monday, October 19 with a selection of tours and training sessions and the Canadian launch of the GRP exam, followed by the CitiesAlive! Opening Reception at Toronto City Hall, which we unfortunately missed due to a late flight. Sponsored by The City of Toronto, attendees gathered on the City Hall Rotunda and were treated to a ’sneak peek preview tour’ of the new Toronto City Hall Green Roof, and heard from Mayor of Toronto David Miller, Manfred Köhler, President of the co-host World Green Roof Infrastructure Network (WGRIN), and Steven Peck, Executive Director of co-host Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC). The new greenroof is more expansive than the previous incarnation of the 3,200 sf Toronto City Hall Green Roof Demonstration Project, which was dismantled and replaced with this larger living roof. I’ll update the profile on The Greenroof Projects Database as soon as I get more info.
Tuesday morning, October 20 started bright and early with the CitiesAlive! Opening Plenary, where Steven welcomed everyone and stressed the importance of the bigger picture and how green infrastructure options can secure a more sustainable and prosperous future for us all. He talked about two main themes: Cities can and are leading on major environmental issues such as global warming and how the best solutions are those that are good for the environment and good for the economy. The City of Toronto is leading by example in many areas; for example, it now has a 40% reduction of greenhouse emissions based on 1990 levels and the #1 hybrid electric bus fleet in Canada, which is #2 in North America behind New York City, saving significant operations costs. And through partnering with local businesses and residents, Live Green Toronto has issued grants in excess of $10 million to Torontonians.
Mayor Miller presented the Opening Address “Towards a Green Toronto” spoke about Living Green here with projects such as their ”Transit City” program, whose transit expansion into underserved, poorer areas really equals social justice as light rail encouragesbetter development and will better the lives of many. New programs like Live Green Toronto and city-wide initiatives like Mayor’s Tower Renewal will revitalize communities. For example, plans to add thermal over cladding and insulation (plus greenroofs and other eco- friendly building features) to the numerous city concrete slab highrises will not only reduce energy but will cut citywide gas emissions by 3-5%. These efforts will help create local employment and result in an environmental success story for Toronto. The City’s overall goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.
Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone spoke about the evolution of the Toronto’s Eco-Roof Incentive Program (formerly the Green Roof Pilot Program). For example, in 2006, 16 projects were funded, 30 in 2007, and 34 projects have been approved in 2009. Approved by City Council in November 2008, the Eco-Roof Incentive Program is based on the successful Green Roof Pilot Program of 2006 and 2007 and includes both cool and eco-roofs. In May, 2009 Toronto became the first City in North America to adopt a bylaw to require and govern the construction of greenroofs on new development. The bylaw will apply to all new building permit applications made after January 31, 2010 (residential, commercial and institutional) and January 31, 2011 for all new industrial development, with a few exceptions. 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%. (See more details at the City of Toronto website.)
Then the first round of speakers started from each of the four concurrent tracks, which I felt was rather ambitious all in just one day - I think we missed out on a lot of really pertinent info, and there was no conference CD like usual for later reference. I remained for Track 2: Innovative Projects and Design from Around the World, and Aramis headed over to Track 3: Policies and Programmes Supporting Green Infrastructure Development with our Student Editor, Christine Thüring (who should be adding some commentary of her own soon).
Track 2: Don Delaney from Flynn Canada started with details of the “Vancouver Convention Centre: 7 Acres of Green Roof in Downtown Vancouver” and went into detail about the trials and tribulations of Canada’s largest greenroof to date, including solutions to stabilize the growing media on slopes up to 40° and planting the 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses. Innovative features include decorative runnels with perforations on the high side to retain water and runoff collection used for irrigation and in a blackwater system. International Leak Detention was brought on board to test the integrity of the waterproofing membrane before and after the installation of the overburden with their Electric Field Vector Mapping (EFVM®) system. We were all very happy to have Andrea from N.A.T.S. Nursery in the audience to answer a lot of growing media and plant questions! This project will be a highlight to our trip to Vancouver, B.C. next year for the 8th installement of the Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference. The Vancouver Convention Centre will be home of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games media and broadcast centre.
Prof. Dr. Eun-Heui Lee from Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea impressed us with ”Green Roof Policy and Projects to Expand Green Space in Seoul” with some key figures: From 2002 through 2008, 218 greenroofs equalling 104,403 m² were constructed and in 2009 so far, 104 greenroofs totalling 41,000 m² have been built or on the boards! And perhaps more importantly, the Seoul Metro Government plans 600 new roofs to be greened by 2012.
Francois LaSalle of ADIVET in France addressed “Development of Green Roofs and Green Facades in France, and presented a history of greenroofs and walls in France. Starting in the 1970’s, about 1 m² of roofs have been greened here, mostly intensive roof gardens, through the 1980’s. By the end of the 1990’s, about 10 greenroof companies had emerged from the extensive market, and in 1994 Patrick Blanc unveiled his first green wall (Mur Vegetal) at the Garden Festival in Chaumont Sur Loire (although probably most famous for his Musée du quai Branly vegetated wall in Paris, 2006). Francois concluded with various French policies, subsidies, and bills to promote, and believe it not, prohibit opposition to planted roofs. Currently, vegetated façades are in their infancy, but greenroofs have a firm hold in the marketplace.
Ignacio Espoz Babul from LatinGreen in Santiago, Chile, presented “Living Walls for Better Indoor Climate in Subways,” an experimental green wall research program currently being implemented at two underground Metro stations in Santiago. Ignacio believes that indoor air pollutant abatement with an improvement in air quality due to reductions of metals and volatile chemicals is possible along with noise reduction due to plant foliage and the associated natural processes – as long as there is sufficient light, air, and water.
The sessions ran a bit late, and the Networking Break on the Trade Show was only supposed to last 30 minutes, but we stayed through lunch because we kept running into people we just had to talk to! So we skipped the next round of speakers in between (sorry I missed Paul Kephart, Andrew Bowerbank, Dr. Nigel Dunnett, Jeff Bruce, and James Sable!). The Networking Break on the Trade Show was very lively, and packed with people – I hope not too many missed those speakers, either. Lunch was held on the Trade Show Floor, which is always a good thing for the exhibitors, who help foot the bill and provide us with so many varieties of products and services. Here are a few:
Bill Corrigan from Tremco Canada told us about some of their company’s 1 million sf of greenroofs in Canada.
International Leak Detection performs non-destructive integrity tests of waterproofing membranes utilizing their patented Electric Field Vector Mapping technology. Membrane defects are located with pin point accuracy.
Lots of people visited the LiveRoof booth to learn about the modular manufacturer’s Soil Elevator™ and Moisture Portal™ technology.
Marie-Anne Boivin and fellow Soprema colleague told us about their many years of greenroof experience in the harsh Canadian climates.
The Trade Show was a good size and was heavily trafficked by all, especially since the refreshment break and newtworking lunch and cocktail were set here. Other Greenroofs.com exhibitor friends included Xero Flor America and Xero Flor Canada, Motherplants, Hydrotech, Sika Sarnafil, and Nilex, where Janet Faust of JDR Enterprises was present.
After lunch, the next round of speakers in Track 2 included Peter Lowitt from Devens Enterprise Commission who spoke about “Green Infrastructure & Eco-Industrial Parks: Lessons Learned From Devens, Massachusetts,” a former military barracks now a 40-acre eco- industrial park with an International Audubon Certified Sustainable Golf Course. He spoke how green infrastructure must take a holistic approach and asked how can we make these projects sustainable? By promoting social and environmental equity.
João Manuel Linck Feijó of the Associação de Telhados Verdes do Brazil presented “Innovative Projects & Green Roof Progress in Brazil” - introducing us to the relatively new greenroof market in Brazil and explaining a potential tax break for large cities and various state proposals for living roofs. He showed some beautiful greenroof projects throughout Brazil using a modular greenroof system from Ecotelhado.
Dr. Karen Liu of Xero Flor Canada addressed “Special Green Roof Projects in B.C.” Dr. Liu highlighted a couple of projects which presented opportunities for greenroof design and engineering creativity. The Butchart Gardens Carousel Pavilion in Victoria, B.C. has slopes ranging from 14-44% and utilized a 2-ply modified bitumen, standing seam copper roof and the architects needed to capture 36 liters of rainwater. Dr. Liu explained the steel grid system to retain the growing media and cautionary items to consider as well. The second project focused on Canada’s first LEED Gold Community, the 2010 Olympic Village where all of the roofs will be either extensive or intensive greenroofs! The extensive greenroofs will feature Xero Flor roofs with vegetated sports figures. These athletic figures will be planted with red flowering annuals and set in red lava rock.
Michael Krause of Kandiyohi Development talked about “Urban Forests and Energy in Minnesota,” a different and very interesting topic. Biomass energy is included in current U.S. energy legislation, and a biomass fuel energy strategy can be used as a small, community-based local climate change solution. Fallen trees are viewed as a carbon sink and vast supplies of excess biomass are available – Michael believes that biomass can be used as an interim strategy for the next 30 years orso, and sees this as a way to democratize energy and bring energy to the community level, since there would be no importing fossil fuels from afar.
Toby Lennox from the Greater Toronto Airports Authority finished with “Industrial Ecology: Partners in Project Green,” Canada’s largest eco-business zone at 4,000 acres. Toronto Pearson Airport manages one half of Canada’s commercial air traffic and 65,000 trips are made to the airport each day. Project Green is bringing together common strategies in a new eco-model of development in a growing community of businesses working together to green facilities and the bottom line.
Afterwards we all convened for the Cocktail Reception, once again on the Trade Show Floor, with spirits and snacks and an opportunity to unwind a bit, followed by the “Transforming the Face of Buildings” Student Design Challenge Awards, Poster Presentations and Networking Event at the Steam Whistle Brewing Roundhouse, a very funky locale and local brewery. The quality of the student entries was superb and I’m sure that the judges had a hard time selecting the winners. Congratulations to everyone who participated, and especially the First Place winner, “Cliffside Village” from students Dov Feinmesser, Yekaterina Mityuryayeva, Tommy Tso, and Aaron Hendershott form Ryerson University, Architectural Science!
We ended the evening with a spirited dinner compliments of George Irwin, our Green Wall Editor, and Diane DiGregorio of Green Living Technologies. Christine took us to an artsy part of town that’s being refurbished where we had awesome appetizers and organic pizza, incredible wine, and great conversation.
I believe that the 2009 CitiesAlive! has indeed sown future seeds of success as WGRIN continues to bring together the international greenroof community of non-profit organizations to highlight current and planned green infrastructure research, policy and projects. Their first congress had some growing pains but I believe that overall it was important, fruitful, and promising with quite an international flair – set in a perfect international city with a very promising future of its own.
Next up I’ll wrap up our time in Toronto with some photos of our day on the Toronto Sustainable Bus Tour and evening at the lovely Toronto Botanical Garden.
2009 marks the third year of our “Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof Design” – download the Press Release here. Compiled by our Design Editor, Haven Kiers, and I, we presented the Top 10 List on Friday, June 5, 2009 at the 7th Annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards and Trade Show in Atlanta, GA.
Our time slot was changed by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities from 9:30 am to 8:00 am, so if you went by an older Agenda, you missed us!
In 2007, we explored “chic sustainability” and looked at examples of trailblazing and trendsetting greenroof design. Last year, we turned to greenroof industry professionals for inspiration and guidance and asked them to share their top 10 trends of 2008 with us. Together we chose “The Influence of LEED on Design Professionals = Pushing the Green Envelope,” “Sky High Cool Green Schools,” and “Eco-Communities & Eco-Cities” for the top three spots.
This year, the projects we have chosen all share a similar concept – the desire to improve their surrounding environment. The focus of the Top 10 Trends of 2009 is on greenroof design as a means to combat problems in our world of the built environment versus nature, and restore sustainability to the eco-system.
I feel the common element running through all the categories this year is the increasing shift in viewing the building not as a single physical element to be manipulated, but holistically – integrating the site, building envelope, and roof with cultural awareness – creating vegetated surfaces in 3-D and truly linking nature to human design.
6) Sustainable Stimulus: Green Buildings Creating Green Collar Jobs
5) LID Strategies: Celebrating Water with Greenroofs, Rain Gardens, Stormwater Catchment & Beyond
4) Championing the Green Machine: Policy Driven Ecological Development
3) Healthy, Efficient & Affordable Green Housing
2) Sky-High Green Living on the Rise: Condos, Townhomes and Lofts
1) “Towers of Power” – Mega Vertical Structures Linking Earth and Sky
As usual, we included built projects, those on the boards, and several which are stunningly conceptual, like “The Lilypad” by Vincent Callebaut, above and below, designed to make us really push our notion of the possibilities of function and design, and to reprioritize and rethink our global view of our diminishing natural resources. Actually, The Lilypad is a “Tower of Power” – Mega Vertical Structures Linking Earth, Sky, and Water!
Missed our presentation? No problem - click on the 2009 PowerPoint here:
You can also view the 2008 and 2007 PowerPoint presentations of the Top 10 List of Hot Trends in Greenroof Design, and the papers, too. We’ll be posting the 2009 paper – with hyperlinks to each project in The Greenroof Projects Database - by the end of the month.
Check out the September 29, 2008 issue of People Magazine, and turn to the next to the last page. ”Up on the Roof” are Troy Wagner and his wife Julie – center stage on the mostly graphic two-page spread, talking about their 110-year old home in Tacoma, Washington. Back at the beginning of the year Troy had shared his experience with us about building his two greenroofs using a rather unique method. Based on traditional Scandinavian turf homes, one has a 12/12 pitch planted with sod, and he actually has a resident goat who provides a unique but sustainable form of maintenance from time to time!
The second greenroof is over his lesser pitched garage, which he actually mows. On one side the couple tends to vegetables while the other is a flower garden. Troy told me that after having owned a roofing company for 15 years and looking at 20,000 roofs he felt it was time to set an ecological example, so in 2004 they built their living roofs. Check out the ”Troy’s Green Roof“ profile in The Greenroof Projects Database. People also has photos of the Roofscapes’ Life Expression Wellness Center, the California Academy of Sciences, and a private residence in Sunol, California.
Known for their spectacular coverage of celebrities as well as plain old regular folk, I was surprised when one of the People article’s authors, Maureen Harrington, called me back in July to pick my brain about “the phenomenon of greenroofs in the U.S.” - I guess greenroofs really are becoming mainstream! She was looking for facts, and Ed Snodgrass of Green Roof Plants, who was interviewed, referred Maureen to me.
Everyone wants hard statistics (I also recently fielded some from Bloomberg News and Newsweek), and we get requests from tons of freelance writers all over the world – the UK, Chile, France, Poland…you name it. The point is our industry is still accumulating these figures since research and projects, at least in North America, are relatively new. I say relatively because although we can been studying and building modern-day living roofs here since the 1990’s, the Germans have figures from many types of testing and trials from the 1970’s. The websites of both Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) and us here at Greenroofs.com have been up since 1999 and in terms of facts, each has a lot of specific data: GRHC in their Tree of Knowledge page and from Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference proceedings (available for purchase if you didn’t get to each one), and Greenroofs.com in FAQ’s, ResearchLinks, Industry Support, and The Greenroof Projects Database.
But getting back to the People article, I suggested ranges rather than hard facts for costs and energy savings because each greenroof project is unique, something we have all been harping on for years. And in terms of numbers of projects, I gave my best guesstimate of “more than 500″ based on what we do have listed in The Greenroof Projects Database, profiles waiting to be entered, plus approximate numbers for under represented U.S. cities, including the more traditional sod homes found across the northern states. And they only wanted figures for residential projects, so that number includes not only Single-Family but also Multi-Family and Multi-Use profiles.
That’s why it’s so important to keep compiling case studies from across the globe to show the world that greenroofs are viable, demand and construction are thriving, and the market is here to stay. Everyone wants to know where they are, what type they are, who designed them, how big they are, etc., and of course everyone wants to see photos, too! The Greenroof Projects Database is meant to be a free international resource, so we encourage you to continue submitting profiles with as much information as you feel comfortable sharing, and we always send readers back to the original source for follow up.
Getting back to the article, Ed has a couple of quotes and referring to the added capital investment of greenroofs, he simply says:
“It’s like getting a Prius or solar panels…It costs more upfront but there are long-term savings.”
In addition to the obvious ecologocal, economic, and aesthetic benefits, we all know that greenroofs offer habitat for displaced birds, butterflies and other wildlife. I don’t know that goats up on a roof are the wave of the future, but I do believe that eco-friendly architecture is. In today’s environmentally conscious climate, eco-trends are here to stay and as these trends become the norm and turn mainstream, we’ll see costs driven down and then the vegetated roofing market will really take off.
And who knows, maybe in a few years’ time alongside perusing the Best & Worst Dressed People issue we’ll be also reading about the Best Sustainable Design Trends in People - perhaps even an article behind the greening of the White House? Now there’s a people story!
First of all, I have to say that the title is just quite not right because 1): Although most students are back in school, summer is not over yet; and 2): I haven’t had a real vacation in a long time, let alone this particularly hectic summer! Of course, recently I have been traveling in my “other career” to some wonderful cities – Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Madrid, and Copenhagen - but with only 24 -36 hour layovers, these visits can hardly be considered holidays.
But I liked the classic tone of ”What I did on My Summer Vacation” because it sounds like I actually did something productive, and I felt like I needed an excuse to explain why I haven’t posted anything in three months… Well, I’m back and now Sky Gardens ~ where cool green meets lofty blue will be populated not only by me but all of our contributing editors on a more regular basis. So what have we been doing on Greenroofs.com?
For one thing, we’ve been keeping our Student Intern, Caroline Menetre, very busy with hands on visits to The Greenroof Pavilion & Trial Gardens of Rock Mill Park documenting our plant trials and with The Greenroof Projects Database, where she has been entering case studies like crazy. Her internship will be over soon, and we’ll need some extra hands for research and data entry, so if you’re interested, please let me know: linda@greenroofs.com.
After the whirlwind filming of our little “Love the Earth: Plant A Roof!” video in May, we embarked on a much larger project, our brand new “Sky Gardens” WebTV series, at the beginning of June. We begin our internet journey to explore the organic architecture of greenroofs and visit all kinds of different, exciting projects around the world, and I’ll be your host on Greenroofs.TV. We’re initiating our series highlighting greenroofs in the U.S., starting with one of my own designs – you guessed it – the beautiful and award-winning Rock Mill Park. The City of Alpharetta received the 2008 Water Resources Project of Excellence award and Breedlove Land Planning, who designed the park, just won a Merit Award from the Georgia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects – congratulations!
Each time I’ll take you on a tour of one unique, stunning vegetative roof. From planning through the design process, installation through completion, we’ll share intimate stories from the stakeholders – government officials, designers, owners, product manufacturers and service providers. Why was it built – what was the client’s intent or market driver? Was it stormwater management, mitigation of the urban heat island, biodiversity, sexy aesthetics, or a combination? What was the design philosophy and who was involved? What were the site challenges, techniques used, and what were the lessons learned? Bottom to top, we’ll show the materials used, culminating in the beautiful, living, breathing plant layer. Each program will highlight the greenroof’s site specific benefits to the building’s ecology, the local environment, and the watershed at large.
The Alpharetta project is unique for many reasons, especially because the entire property was originally owned by a full blood Cherokee and the site is located within the 100-year flood plain of Big Creek Watershed. The Greenroof Pavilion is just one of the many low impact development techniques used to tread lighter on the environment and provide educational opportunties for visitors. When is the air date? We’ll keep you posted, but we’re planning on the end of September.
Speaking of September, are you going to the World Green Roof Congress in London? The two day conference will discuss the challenges and opportunities faced when implementing green roofs, and will focus on the contributions that they can make to sustainable urban regeneration, climate change adaptation, sustainable storm water management as well as improvements to local biodiversity and quality of life within cities. The conference will highlight latest innovations and research to support the effective promotion and delivery of green roof solutions as well as demonstrating examples of good practice from the UK and overseas. We’re planning on going, but there may be a scheduling conflict with our second “Sky Gardens” WebTV episode – we’ll be filming in Manhattan atop a corporate headquarters, and the date hasn’t been confirmed yet!
Hopefully we can go and see Dusty Gedge of Livingroofs.org and all of our other friends from across the pond. And it would be grand to go on one of the 6-day study tours from Green Roof Safari in Germany and Switzerland – we’ll see. Green Roof Safari is a collaboration between Christine Thuring, our Student Editor, and Jörg Breuning of Green Roof Service, so I’m sure a lot of great vegetated roofs and fun will be involved.
I also spent some intense design time for a major greenroofing company on a potential local commercial project – I delivered four conceptual illustrative designs and it would be just awesome if they decide to implement any of them! Can’t tell you who it is, but it’s very exciting – let’s see what develops.
You know how last year we published our first Greenroofs of the World Calendar™? Well, we’re currently gathering more stunning living roof projects for the 2009 Greenroofs of the World Calendar™, and this year it will be available for purchase much earlier – in time for the holiday season!
So designing, writing, editing, and filming in 97 degree weather here in Georgia has taken up most of my summer, but don’t feel too badly for me. Confession: 24 hours may not be enough to qualify as a vacation, but I have to admit that I always manage to have some fun on my (very) mini work-related holidays. Sightseeing in a new city is always a must, as seen in these photos from Copenhagen earlier this month, but I’m always looking for examples of green architecture, too.
And to be honest, it wasn’t really my first time in Denmark – my husband Aramis and I spent one day there in 2002 awaiting our return to the U.S., after I gave a greenroof presentation across the way in Malmö, Sweden where we spent four wonderful days with our very gracious hosts, Peter and Violetta Lindhqvist, former directors of the Augustenborg Botanical Roof Garden and the International Green Roof Institute, now the Scandinavian Green Roof Association.
But on this trip I was able to go on a canal tour and it was beautiful! The overcast skies opened up to a gorgeous day on the water. And I even found a sustainable design exhibition going on offered by the Danish Architects Center.
So there you have it! My next blogging endeavors will include interviewing all of our contributing editors, starting with Ed Snodgrass, our Plant Editor. And look for a new editor coming on board soon, too.
and people look most at the left top side. This visual image of the featured greenroof project should instigate additional interest and thus a click-through that brings the latest project profile to the forefront in a separate window. As you probably know, the project profile contains various photos and detailed content describing many important and relevant aspects of the case study. The data associated with these profiles is administered on our MySQL Greenroof & Greenwall Projects Database via PHP scripts. Our database currently has 1,022 project profiles with many more being added every day. By the way, the content of this database is currently indexed by Google and Google News – which means when visitors search online, the results page will contain links to the data from our database.
The Greenroof Directory is also a MySQL database which contains essential information (contact, products, services, photos, etc.) about Manufacturers, Suppliers, Professional Services, and Organizations in the greenroof industry. 
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Then the first round of speakers started from each of the four concurrent tracks, which I felt was rather ambitious all in just one day - I think we missed out on a lot of really pertinent info, and there was no conference CD like usual for later reference. I remained for Track 2: Innovative Projects and Design from Around the World, and Aramis headed over to Track 3: Policies and Programmes Supporting Green Infrastructure Development with our 
