In our dense Cities, more and more intensive Green Roofs are being built.
Besides all the environmental reasons, building owners recognized
that a Roof Garden – usable green on the roof - creates additional value
with a fast and consistent payback. A building with a roof garden is
simply more attractive for tenants and potential buyers.
Typically, structural loads reduce this fantastic idea to a low
profile extensive Green Roof or to an intensive green roof that is
landscaped with Geofoam.
All professionals know that expanded polystyrene (Geofoam) is
questionable from an environmental perspective. Some horticulturalists
know that Geofoam has no benefits for the plants – actually, it reduces
their rooting space for the plants (grass can root up to 3 feet deep)
and consequently it increases maintenance and irrigation needs. As a
result, most of these Roof Gardens with Geofoam are elevated intensive
care nurseries.
Hardly any Roof Garden
in Europe utilizes Geofoam because of the high risk of rodents and
environmental conflicts. These roofs are being built with Foam Glass
Gravel. Over the last 25 years Foam Glass Gravel replaced Geofoam and
eliminated all the related disadvantages of Geofoam.
Foam Glass Gravel is 95% recycled glass, has a much higher
compressive strength, the roots can practically expand like in a natural
soil horizon and if combined with low-tide/high-tide irrigation the
water and fertilizer consumption can be reduce by up to 75%.
The savings in no waste installations, less complicated irrigation
systems, in water reduction and less maintenance make this material
cheaper than any Geofoam application.
European architects
also like the idea that you can create any type of landscaping on a
roof without any problems, fully organic and without additional
components. Foam Glass Gravel allows adding walkways, roads or other
structures on top of it. Foam Glass Gravel has the best lightweight –
compressive strength of all mineral materials available on earth.
The picture below shows typical setups of intensive Green Roofs with Foam Glass Gravel, like nature does it and to compare how people still do it with Geofoam.
Green Roof Service LLC - Green Roof Technology is proud to be the first that utilizes this advanced Green Roof solution with Foam Glass Gravel on projects in North America for amazing and low impact intensive Green Roofs.

… we build for nature, we build like nature, we are nature.