By: Samantha Yurek

On April 7th, 2014, the City of Sydney, Australia approved a Green Roofs and Walls Policy. The Policy will be carried out by the Strategic Planning and Urban Design Committee of Sydney. A three year plan, its main goal is to raise awareness of the importance of green space in urban areas as well as promote the implementation of potential green roofs and walls.

                                   Pinpointing Green Roofs in the City of Sydney

Sydney is already in the lead of the green revolution, with a total of 83 green roofs and walls throughout the city. In addition, 50-70 likely projects have been approved to construction and should be underway soon.The Green Roof Meadow at the Prince Alfred Park Pool is one of the largest in Sydney. Complete with 2,000 square meters of green space, including over 35,000 seasonal and native grasses.

                            The Green Roof Meadow at the Prince Alfred Park Pool

The city is also home to One Central Park residential towers, featuring the world's tallest vertical garden at 33 stories. These gardens consist of 190 native Australian plants as well as 160 exotic species. Although it may not be the tallest for long - Shri Lanka is now in the running with plans to build a 46 story residential building, with multiple vertical gardens, proposed to be completed by the end of 2016.

                                        One Central Park Towers in Sydney

Lucy Sharman, Sydney's Green Roofs and Walls Senior Project Officer explains, "With higher-density living and a growing population, we need to accommodate people in a healthy way and use urban space as wisely as possible." And it seems that advocating for a greener city is working. "We receive more than one development application each week for a green roof or wall," says Sharman.

                                            One Central Park Towers in Sydney

The Green Roofs and Walls Policy isn't their only attempt to create a cleaner and healthier environment. The city has been working on many movements, such as 202020. Working towards 20% more green spaces in urban places by the year 2020. 

If you're interested in, you may check out the whole Green Roofs and Walls Policy here.

By: Samantha Yurek

 

Many people wouldn't think twice when gathering a lovely bouquet of flowers while out for a hike. But maybe this is a lesson we should all be practicing and passing down generations, when out enjoying the great outdoors. Transporting flowers for your own benefit is erroneous and punishable in certain situations. 

Although the United States doesn't have a specific law protecting wildflowers from being violently up-rooted, the Endangered Species Act of 1973 does cover all of the plants that are slowly vanishing.

Many states have specific laws regarding plants. For example, North Carolina's Plant Protection and Conservation Act states that it is unlawful "to possess any protected plant, or part thereof, which was obtained in violations of this Article or any rule adopted thereunder." If caught, fines can rise as high as $1000.

There are many reasons why you shouldn't pick wildflowers or take plants from the wild. Not only does it reduce the vibrancy of the location, but it also can be damaging to the environment. The USDA explains it perfectly, "We don't often realize it, but wildflowers support entire ecosystems for pollinators, birds, and small animals on a micro scale. Butterflies and other insects, small birds, and animals depend on seeds, nectar, and pollen for their food supply and life support system. In addition, some pollinators are not very mobile or have very small home ranges or depend on just one species of plant and die once their habitat has been destroyed."

In some cases, transporting flowers from the wild can also aid in the spread of invasive species.

 

It may not be your first reaction when someone goes to pick a few flowers, but just keep in mind that they are a living object as well, attempting to survive and reproduce just like the rest of us. And is it really worth picking these plants, only to have them wilt in a matter of hours or days? Especially when you could be enjoying them all spring and summer if you were to simply let them be.

So my advice to you is, instead of pocketing flowers from Mother Nature's garden, it is just as easy to take a short trip to your local nursery. Not only will there be a great selection on plants to choose from, you will directly be supporting your local community.

       Let me reiterate: 

MD HOUSE BILL 207

Today I we received an email by the USGBC requesting to oppose the MD House Bill 207. In the last decades the USGBC grew dramatically. Beside their originally great intention, LEED increased the costs of buildings super proportionally to the benefits for the environment.

In our opinion it is now necessary to naturally develop sustainable practices, solutions and technologies that can be much easier adopted and implemented by environmentally conscious people. With very simple tools (“rain tax”, higher taxes on energy, and responsibility for costs to reduce the negative environmental foot print of buildings etc.) the government now has a great opportunity giving back to builders and building owners the freedom of making their own decisions without the overwhelming pressure and costs from LEED.

Bill 207 helps to increase environmental consciousness of all American individuals and gives them back their freedom and responsibility in making their own decisions.

What is described as a setback by the USGBC is just a desperate reflex and fear of losing revenue and influence. USGBC must learn this lesson and USGBC has to prove that they are still competitive once Bill 207 passed.  

If the USGBC can’t take this as challenge they are worthless to start with.  

We support MD House Bill 207

Going Green Will Save Lancaster in Controlling Storm Water

Release Date: 03/04/2014
Contact Information: David Sternberg, 215-814-5548 sternberg.david@epa.gov

-New EPA Report Documents Savings-

Mayor Rich Gray

 

Lancaster, like hundreds of other cities across the country, has both a combined sewer system (CSS) and a municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4). While the CSS collects both sewage and stormwater and conveys flows to a wastewater treatment plant, the MS4 collects only stormwater runoff and discharges flow directly to receiving streams.

A copy of the report can be accessed at this link:
http://owpubauthor.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/gi_csnortheast.cfm

By: Jörg Breuning

In 1999 North America discovered that modern green roof technology is more than just an exclusive garden for a few wealthy people on top of a building. Experts understood very quickly that there are unmatched advantages of bringing back nature into locations where it was before.

With this enthusiasm, a lot of environmentalists and environmental organizations started to notice various opportunities to improve, simplify or promote themselves in many ways. Some of these ideas might sound glamorous, but the bigger picture concerning nature, is often disregarded.

In a previous blog post we reported about the ridiculous reductionist research of comparing reflective roofs with green roofs. Today we want to focus on the hype of native plants for green roofs:

Many Americans call a living organism native if these organisms have been on this continent before North America was discovered by European settlers. In their naivety, they have completely forgotten how the Natives have discovered and have lived on the land hundreds to thousands of years before.

So called Native people did the same as any organism; they expanded from their original locations to secure the species. While migrating and expanding over continents, all living organisms will change their environment accordingly. Microorganisms like bacteria or macro organisms like humans follow in the same footprints in evolution. The migration of European settlers did that as well and eventually became 'native'.

For most American people (as mentioned on Wikipedia) the opposite of native is "invasive". This discrimination is completely ignorant to the fact that something must be introduced first before it is invasive, encroaching, or just simply trespassing. 

It is even a bigger discrimination and ignorance of God's creation or evolution (whichever you prefer) when these people ( a lot of them call themselves experts) tell us that approximately 1,000 hectares of Bamboo scattered across the USA are a problem for when they call native species. However, at the same time, 1,000,000 hectares (1,000 times more) of genetically modified corn is not a problem. On top of this blatant discrimination, these 'tunnel-view' educated people (including LEED™) are pointing out that roofs are an ideal place for what they deem native plants.

Rooftops might be a stepping stone environment for plants that have been in North America for many thousands of years but when we try and set them up in a new place it is like a conversation of a narrowed down selection of species and disregarding the entire picture. It is obvious that history repeats itself - there are still existing reservations for Native Americans and we all know what effort this was, how discriminating this was and how much diversity, knowledge and inspiration we have lost. We are essentially treating native plants in the same way and that has nothing to do with environmental protection.

These so-called native plants must have a so-called native environment and require all the natural players (other living organisms) to thrive.

* Jeffersonia diphylla for example depends on ants to spread and what building owners want to have colonies of ants?

* The big family of Trifolium (stamped as a weed by nurseries) requires the stiff hair of animals to fulfill their natural calling - how many deer of bears do you want on your roof?

* Or shall we shoot all the birds that spread seeds from introduced trees?

The point of this blog is that any type of nature is better than covering the ground with impervious surface areas like asphalt, concrete of ground mounted solar factories. All our environmental issues are caused by the loss of natural environments. It is also much cheaper to protect these natural environments where they are and avoid relocation into reservations (such as rooftops). Simply by reducing footprints of man-made structures and concentrating human settlements to specific location allows these so-called natives organisms to thrive and to continue their journey of evolution.

By: Jörg Breuning

Every now and then we find studies comparing green roofs verses white roofs. It seems like and up-stream battle for the green roof industry against the big profits that are being made in the roofing industry with reflective water proofing membranes. All manufacturers of roofing material know that a reflective membrane will sell easier and with a higher profit than a traditional black tar roof. It is cheaper in production, and with the right crew, easier to install as well. In addition, because of the environmental benefit (discovered by LEED), the pricing can be more expensive.

Covering this membrane with a green roof should increase the profits - so we think. In reality, it isn't the case because the lack of horticultural understanding and human's natural fear of nature make it a high risk factor or even a potential lawsuit. Stockholders and risk managers for large roofing manufacturers offer green amenities (because this is good for their image), but never pressure these offers. Unfortunately, for roofing companies, protecting the revenue and profits is of higher priority over the environment and real sustainable practices.

It is no secret that selected manufactures support Universities in order to preform research on reflective membranes verses green roofs. These manufacturers tell the researchers precisely what to say and do so their reputation thrives. Since research jobs are not plenty full and Universities have the same economic pressure as roofing manufacturers, the results of this research may be questionable.

In an older selective or reductionist study at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the so-called scientist went a step further. Writing a paper, clearly motivated by manufacturers, they described their data as somewhat sparse - does that mean worthless?

We still try to understand the words that are used in this study:

"Somewhat" = to a moderate extent or by a moderate amount

"Sparse" = thinly dispersed or scattered

We at Green Roof Service LLC/Green Roof Technology don't need simplyfied research that says "maybe yes" and "maybe no" in one sentence without considerations of the entire picture. Many people in the green roof industry don't have a scientific backing, but it is a great gift that they have common sense and understand that bringing back nature to where it previously resided is way better than covering the earth under a white burial shroud.  

The bear in the stream catching the battling salmon can't extinguish the species - as long as the water is clean. If the water is polluted because of the lack of nature in our built up Cities, there won't be any salmon left and the bear will shortly become extinct as well. Responsible research and researchers can help keep our waterways and neighborhoods clean - or address a topic holisitc.

See also our blog post: 

White Roofs are Better than Green Roofs!

http://www.greenrooftechnology.com/green-roof-blog/white-roofs-are-better-than-green-roofs

 

By: Samantha Yurek

According to the EPA, green infrastructure is simply the title given to an approach using environmentally friendly techniques to manage stormwater. This can include multiple efforts such as green roofs, permeable pavement, rain gardens or even planting more trees. It is well known that green infrastructure aids in decreasing stormwater issues, and ultimately creating a healthier environment and more livable neighborhoods. 

This past December, the Natural Resources Defense Council released a study on how investing in green infrastructure creates value for commercial properties. The environmental benefits have been obvious, but how can green infrastructure help YOU out??

 

Picture: First Blue Roof and Green Roof combination in the US

The NRDC explains that "Commercial properties with well-designed green infrastructure can reap the rewards of higher rents and property values, increased retail sales, energy savings, local financial incentives (such as tax credits, rebates, and stormwater fee credits), reduced life-cycle and maintenance costs, reduced flooding damage, reduced water bills, reduced crime, and improved health and job satisfaction for office employees."

If interested in reading the full article you may visit the NRDC official website.

DPC Continuing Education, Inc has recently released their 2014 Future Green Trends Workshop schedule. These workshops focus mainly on rainwater design, green energy, green roofs and green materials.

Next up will be at the Holiday Inn in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Held on Wednesday February 19^th.   

And following February will be March 12^th, at the Hilton Garden Inn, located in Troy, NY.  

Our very own Jörg Breuning has been a guest speaker in the past during these workshops and will be appearing again. Workshops dates to be announced. 

For an extended schedule or more information, you may visit the official DPC website. 

By Jörg Breuning

According a study from prestigious researches at LawrenceBerkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States and School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, reflective roofs have a higher value for building owners than Green Roofs.

Julian Sproula, Man Pun Wanb, Benjamin H. Mandela and Arthur H. Rosenfeld developed a study that clearly explains the monetary benefits of reflective roofs v.s. Green Roofs v.s. traditional roofs. In their reductionist research, the outcome for green roofs is not good.  In a press release they stated:” The researchers acknowledge that their data are somewhat sparse but contend that their analysis is valuable in that it is the first to compare the economic costs and energy savings benefits of all three roof types.” It isn’t the first time – I have seen many worthless studies before…  

I am anchored in the Green Roof Industry since 1980, I roll my eyes and shake my head about counterproductive statements and studies like that. In the yellow pages they would have found somebody who could have told them differently and how to spend the generous money from the industry (other than green roof industry) much better – actually in building a Green Roof. Even when building a Green Roof doesn’t help the building owner (according their study) it would have helped the environment.

Bringing back nature into a location where nature was before is simply the best you can do!

My advice: Don’t start covering your Green Roofs or entire nature with a white piece of plastic – just don’t believe every written word on the internet or commercial reductionist research – Use your gut feeling and think out of the box!

This blog post represents the opinion of Jörg Breuning. If you have another opinion please feel free to contact me.  

Here is a link to the Study.

By: Jörg Breuning

2013 was another very successful year for green roofs and the green roof industry. However, at Green Roof Service LLC/Green Roof Technology we discovered a trend that might affect the industry in the long run. 

The quality of green roof installations didn't improve as much as the industry grew. We have received more calls about poorly installed or poorly functioning green roofs than ever before. Most of these (green) roofs were installed in the last two to three years and the lack of proper engineering and maintenance has caused issues. These issues are time consuming to fix, require replanting, and the installation of additional growing media or even a permanent irrigation system (even in a wet year like 2013!).

The majority of these under-performing green roofs were under a Single Source Warranty and so our first response was: "Go back to your warranty provider." For green roof owners, this was typically the start of a long odyssey. Odysseus never gave up- but with all the issues presented, my clients were quick to give up because the Single Source Warranties are well-phrased and manufacturers are more likely to argue than take action. Arguing with a piece of paper, written by attorneys, twisted and tweaked by companies' legal departments is an uphill battle. No wonder these numerous stranded people decide to call us.

If the client would have taken his money to the bank, rather than spending it on the warranty (typically $1-$3 per square foot) things could have been much easier and cheaper. On top of that, our costs for designing, engineering and overseeing the installation and maintenance would have saved additional money and no problems to start with.

 

In any construction process we are meticulous with our details, quality of materials, craftsmanship and maintenance. We also offer low bureaucratic, simple and efficient solutions to make your green roof last far beyond three decades. Our green roofs wouldn't need any artificial irrigation, and will prove to not cost as much initially, as well as having the potential to be paid back in less than seven years.

It is our goal for the future to support the growth of the green roof industry (and the plants), one by one making our clients happy. Only happy clients can help us - and the green roofing industry.