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Seven countries have set up a non-profit international association to run the World Green Roof Infrastructure Network (WGRIN) to promote sensible climate change responses around the world.
The seven countries met at the April 30 to May 2 sixth annual international greening rooftops conference in Baltimore in the United States. The WGRIN headquarters office will be in Toronto, Canada.
WGRIN’s prime roles will be:
• To help its national membership organizations become more professional and globally-oriented in green roof, green wall and ancilliary infrastructure benefits that counter climate change problems.
• To co-organise with its member countries the new annual World Green Infrastructure Congress.
The seven founding countries are Germany, France, United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Australia. Other countries are expected to soon join WGRIN via their national green roof organizations.
Six directors have been appointed to manage and develop the global network.
Founding President of the new world network is Professor Dr Manfred Koehler, from the University of Applied Sciences, Neubrandenburg, Germany. He has been involved in green roof research, teaching and green roof organizations for 25 years, and represents the German FBB (green building association).
Vice President is Tanya Muller from Mexico. She is President of AMENAMEX (Associacion Mexicana para la Naturacion Azoteas), the national Mexican green roof association that has assessed the major green roof projects in Mexico and is currently working with the Secretary of Environment, Mexico City, in developing public policies for green roofs.
Treasurer/Secretary of WGRIN is Steven Peck, Founder and President of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, North America. He represents more than 6,000 green roof professionals of both the United States and Canada, and has been a leading initiator of northern America’s rapid recent expansion of green roof information and education programs.
Communications Director is Geoff Wilson, Founder and Immediate Past President of Green Roofs Australia Inc. He is a retired Australian journalist/editor in agribusiness, green roofs, urban agriculture and aquaponics.
Two other WGRIN company directors are Francois Lassalle, Co-founder of the French green roofs organization, ADIVET, and Joao Fejio of, Associatio Brazileira de Telhados Verdes, the Brazilian green roof association.
Auditor of the company is Sidonie Carpenter, President of Green Roofs Australia Inc. and owner of the Brisbane-based green roof and green wall consultancy, Green Canopy.
WGRIN’s immediate task is to help conduct the Toronto World Green Infrastructure Congress in October, 2009 in partnership with Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, North America. Around 1,000 participants are expected to attend to learn more about green roofs and walls as a climate change tool.
Other annual congress events planned with climate change and related themes are:
• Mexico CityWorld Green Infrasructure Congress in 2010 (confirmed).
• Linz World Green Infrastucture Congress in 2011 (to be confirmed).
• Brisbane World Green Infrastucture Congress in 2012 (confirmed).
Each congress is being run jointly by WGRIN in partnership with a member country’s national organization.
“We believe that green roof and green wall technology can make an important contribution to amelioration of climate change problems likely to be experienced around the world,” Professor Koehler said.
“WGRIN will help develop the global built environment industry in climate change responses that reduce costs for users of green roof, green wall, and associated infrastructure.
“It will also increase sound business opportunities for just on 12 professional and business groups involved. A special focus is expected on green roof and green wall research and demonstration developments that underpin sound information for dissemination,” Professor Koehler said.
Note to editors/journalists:
Further information is available from WGRIN Director of Communications: Email Geoff Wilson. Phone: +61 (0)412 622 779.
By GEOFF WILSON
Building and operating commercial greenhouses on supermarket rooftops in the United States is the award-winning idea for a new business named Sky Vegetables.
It is an idea expected to be widely adopted around the world as peak oil cost increases and climate change problems seriously challenge traditional agricultural production.
Last month the Sky Vegetables’ business plan won the $10,000 top prize in the 2008 G.Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition for students of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
According to the Wisconsin Technology Network News, Sky Vegetables won top prize following a review of business plans of 17 start-up companies.
Sky Vegetables prototype green roof investment intends to break even 20 months from now. It proposes to operate its rooftop greenhouses as separate entities above supermarkets and its business model calls for year-round rooftop hydroponic cultivation of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers for retail sale immediately below. Fast expansion of the idea is expected as Sky Vegetables succeeds.
Produce will be picked as it ripens, and taken to the sales shelf in less than half and hour. Market research has shown this as a big sales clincher.
Lack of transportation, packaging, and storage costs provides the venture with a significant competitive advantage. About 80% of the cost of fresh produce in the U.S lies in the travel from farm to supermarket shelf. Other developed countries have much the same cost basis for fresh produce.
Up until now the lower farm cost of most agricultural production has prevented this rooftop urban agriculture idea from being maintained, but as rural production faces declines from climate change problems ahead, and as petroleum cost rises add to rural production, transport and other costs, the rooftop growing above supermarkets becomes financially attractive.
Since 1966 the Burrill competition has encouraged UW-Madison students to design technology-related businesses. G.Steven Burrill, the UW alumnus who supports the competition is a San Franciscan merchant banker investing in biotechnology companies. He is known internationally for his interest in life sciences.
The Sky Vegetables rooftop investment is expected to have significant benefits in Australia, via Green Roofs Australia Inc.
More details of United States and Australian “food from the roof” projects will be available for participants in the second annual Green Roofs Australia conference in Brisbane, Queensland, on June 18 and 19. Details here.
Green Roofs Australia invites abstracts for its 18-20 June 2008 conference in Brisbane.
Built environment academics and professionals can submit abstracts online here.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR ABSTRACTS
SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS
Abstract addressing the conference topics are invited from all potential authors. The abstracts should be written between 400-500 words and submitted via the Abstract Submission on the Green Roofs Australia Conference Website.
The Abstract should:
The document format should be submitted via the Abstract Submission (ie. typed directly into the space provided). All abstracts and full papers will be peer reviewed before being accepted and published in the conference proceedings.
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION & TRAVEL
To register for the Green Roofs 08 conference, please click here. ALL flight options to the GRA08 Conference are here. Alternatively, contact Corporate Travel Management (CTM) direct for the best airfare rates available on 1800 630 866 or e-mail: groups@travelctm.com. Remember to quote your event code: GRA08
CONFERENCE SPONSORSHIP
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Sidonie Carpenter (pictured) has been appointed president of Green Roofs Australia (GRA), the organisation formed in October 2007 as Australia’s member of the World Green Roof Infrastructure Network (WGRIN).
Mrs Carpenter was elected vice-president of Green Roofs Australia when it was founded. She runs her own business, Green Canopy, involved in the design and installation of green roofs and walls. Green Canopy also consults to built environment industries about the positive and active responses that Green Roofs and Walls offer to climate change.
She became president when founder and first president, Geoff Wilson, retired to become an active director of WGRIN, and to have a lesser role in organisational work for Green Roofs Australia.
Both Mrs Carpenter and Mr Wilson will attend the first meeting of WGRIN in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States, in the first week of May. They will be promoting a bid for Brisbane to hold the World Green Roof Congress in 2012.
This will provide the city of Brisbane with four years to build green roofs and walls that can be viewed by up to 2,000 conference attendees expected from around the world.
Mrs Carpenter is currently organising the second Green Roofs for Australia conference in Brisbane on June 19 and 20, 2008, and the one-day Introductory Green Roof and Wall Education Program on June 18, 2008.
In 2007 Mrs Carpenter made a two-month fellowship study visit to Singapore, North America and Canada to collect the latest information on green roofs and walls. This study fellowship was awarded by the Melbourne-based International Specialised Skills Institute, funded by the Pratt Foundation.
She holds an arts degree at the University of Queensland (majoring in architecture and town planning); a graduate diploma in landscape architecture from Queensland University of Technology; and a Certificate of Urban Horticulture, as well as and 101 and 102 Green Roof Design & Installation Courses.
Further information: Geoff Wilson. CLICK HERE TO EMAIL
Green Roofs Australia (GRA) has been very fortunate to receive this photo documentation from a roofing contractor who is hoping green roofs will put more traditional roofs out of business.
Washington roofing contractor Troy Wagner replaced his own roof with greenery after he observed that green roofs last much longer than “clean roofs”.
He sent GRA a written account of his step-by-step green roof progress, in which he writes:
“Over 15 years I figure I have looked at 15,000 roofs, and occasionally I would come across a roof covered in moss. In the western side of the state of Washington we are blessed with 50 inches of rain a year, this means moss on all the roofs. Insurance companies require the roofs to be moss-free, believing it leads to leaks, so to find a roof covered completely with moss is rare.”
But during his professional life inspecting roofs, Troy observed that moss-covered roofs lasted much longer than ‘clean’ roofs — sometimes more than twice as long:
“When inspecting the roof system that should only last 20 years and finding those covered with moss lasted 40 to 50 years, and only were changed out because the home was being sold or an insurance company saw it, I scratched my head. After seeing this a few times I started to believe that the moss was protecting the roof from the sun’s radiation. The sun’s radiation can cause a roofing system to loose the ability to expand and contract with the change in temperature causing it to crack, curl and become brittle.”
This was when Troy started investigating vegetative options:
“Five years ago I ran into a house with a low pitch 3/12 that had wood shingles, no felt paper and on skip sheeting (1×4s with a 4” space) the roof was 75 years old, covered with grass that had grown in the moss. This caused a light bulb to go off in my head and I said ahhhh, then ran home and tore off my roof.”
The results are pictured above and below, and Troy has given GRA written step-by-step documentation on how he built his own spectacular green roof, which includes an impressive vegetable patch (below). (Australian residents please note: US load bearing specifications differ.)
Troy is enthused about green roofs’ potential to improve our environmental footprint.
“If everybody did this I would be out of business as a roofing contracter, and I am ok about that… I offer free advice to anyone wanting to do this.”
Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne will host half-day seminars about green roofs and green walls as a potent way to address the challenge of climate change.
Featuring Germany’s Professor Manfred Köhler, the seminars will be held during the last week of February and the first week of March. They will draw upon 30 years’ knowledge and experience in green roofs and green walls in Germany - covering research, policy, infrastructure, management and design.
The lectures are designed for built environment professionals: architects, landscape designers, urban planners, builders, water-proofing specialists, horticultural contractors, building owners and developers, building managers, academics and council officers.
Professor Manfred Köhler, Chairman of the World Green Roof Infrastructure Network, is visiting Australia from Germany, where he is professor of landscape ecology at the University of Applied Sciences at Neubrandenberg. He founded the Green Roof Research Centre at this university, and is active in green roof organisations in Germany and in North America. Professor Köhler will speak about Germany’s 30 or so years of modern technology development of green roofs and green walls, plus the important new investment in Germany in combined green roofs and solar energy collection. This expected has significance in Australia because the Worldwatch Institute estimates that the United States and China will reduce solar energy collection equipment costs by around 40% in the next two years.
Also speaking will be Geoff Wilson, Founder and President of Green Roofs Australia Inc and the Australian representative on the World Green Roofs Infrastructure Network. He will speak about the potential of green roofs for both highly improved and less costly storm-water management, plus more effective home and business water storage for both green roofs and associated urban agriculture, aquaculture and aquaponics.
Sidonie Carpenter will also speak. She is Vice President of Green Roofs Australia and proprietor of a landscape design business in Brisbane that specialises in green roofs and walls. Sidonie will explain the elementary green roof and green wall education courses she and her team are preparing for Australia. She will also speak about the design and construction of the new green roofed and green walled home she is currently building in Brisbane, to highlight Australian design ideas and plants.
Refreshments are included at the seminars. Members of Green Roofs Australia (and in Sydney, of AILA) enjoy half-price discounts. Click the following links to register in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra or Melbourne.
BRISBANE: 8.30am—12.30pm 26 February Brisbane Technology Park conference centre
SYDNEY: 6pm 27 February Tusculum, 3 Manning Street, Potts Point
CANBERRA: 8.30am—12.30pm Monday 3 March First floor, Rydges Lakeside, London Circuit
MELBOURNE: 8.30am—12.30pm Thursday 6 March Melbourne Town Hall, Swanston Room
Further information from Geoff Wilson: Phones: 07 3411 4524 or 0412 622 779. Or call Sidonie Carpenter 0418 867 123. Or email Geoff Wilson.
The three greenest residential towers in the US, each with solar energy, recycled water and a green roof, are in the same district of New York, reports the Daily News. Treehugger also reports that this area of New York is leading the country in green roofs:
Battery Park City is a neighborhood in New York City, that houses no less than three remarkable green apartment buildings. First came the Solaire, then the Tribeca Green, and the latest is the Verdesian. The roof of the Tribeca is irrigated with harvested rain water, and recycled water from the apartment’s toilets.
Nearby is the Verdesian, which stands 26-stories tall, and atop the building is a green roof, which also serves as a rooftop park for the apartment’s residents.
One of the world’s most inspiring green roofs is the ACROS Fukuoka building in Fukuoka City, Japan. It houses offices, retail space, a 2,000 seat theatre and a museum.
Designed by Emilio Ambasz & Associates, it was built on the last available green space in the city. The design sought to maintain a green physical footprint while delivering a complex of facilities. Its green roofs and walls cascade seamlessly into public parkland.
As Mettaefficient reports, from the building’s rear it appears to be a normal glass-fronted construction. The other side is a large terraced front, home to around 35,000 plants and 76 different species.
The green roof enables the building’s energy consumption to be much lower than other buildings of a similar size because the greenery keeps inside temperature at a comfortable level.
The design for ACROS Fukuoka proposes a powerful new solution for a common urban problem: reconciling a developer’s desire for profitable use of a site with the public’s need for open green space, and the planet’s need for greenery.
The Takenaka Corporation reports: “Regarding the building as a mountain, and with the beauties of nature as a theme, a space configuration and vegetation configuration was adopted which represents the changes of the four seasons.”
The project is expected to raise tourism interest in Japan among global green roof enthusiasts.
With the advent of Google Earth, Green Roofs Australia predicts green roof building tours will be an emerging trend in the next decade among architects and landscapers — in much the same way as open garden schemes are popular with the general public.
This US video explains the benefits of green roofs in a nutshell.
Architects are now thinking beyond retail and residential buildings for their green roofs:
And so are herbal companies. Here’s a favourite via the US-based greenroofs.com: a swiss car with a green roof. Photo by Rob Berghage, Penn State.
by GEOFF WILSON
My prediction is that 2008 will see Australia’s large-scale emergence of a host of green roofs and green walls.
Probably the city to watch closely is my own home town, Brisbane, where some outstanding green roof projects are now being planned, or already have approval.
Sydney now has made a number of good green roof and green wall starts, and so has Melbourne and Adelaide.
This year I expect innovative green roofs and green walls to be reported very widely by Australian architecture and building media — for their enhancement of our urban lives in myriad ways, and particularly as a most sensitive and urgent response to climate change problems.
Most commercial buildings in Australia are currently wasted opportunities in terms of innovative green roofs and green walls.
The majority of our building owners have yet to be well informed about this great climate change response now pioneered widely in Europe, North America and some parts of Asia.
Cities overseas are beginning to be transformed with myriad design options that have serious financial and environmental advantages.
Developers often overlook such environmental design because they consider it more expensive, and their owner clients know too little about its clear advantages. CONTINUED>>> Read the rest of this entry »
Professor Manfred Köhler’s visit to Australia has been confirmed from February 24 to March 8, 2008.
His visit will include opportunities for Green Roof Australia Inc members to hear his talks about both:
He will be helping the Australian green roof movement keep abreast of overseas technologies, research and policy. Read all about Manfred’s exciting planned Australian tour in the GRA Members’ Newsletter. This special issue of the newsletter is open access to all, but if you are in the green roof industry please register to become a member. Member benefits here.
Greener Buildings.com reports that a Michigan State University study has found that the area covered by green roofs increased by 80 per cent in 2006 from the previous year. The report continues:
The study found that while growing, cost is a barrier to the spread of green roofs, which can cost twice as much as a conventional roof but lasts two or three times longer.
Green roofs, comprised of plants and materials crucial to their growth, provide several benefits, including the ability to reduce cooling costs by as much as 50 percent and retaining stormwater.
The place for some exotic weeds in urban environments has been debated by urban ecologists and permaculturists. Now, Eat The Suburbs researcher Adam Grubb has told The Age’s Katherine Kizilos that some exotic weeds can help us respond to climate change and subsequent food supply issues. While he acknowledges the need for ‘pure’ indigenous habitat, Grubb has documented many edible and medicinal weeds, and says our impulse to dismiss less-invasive weeds’ place in the urban environment should be cautiously re-thought:
“One of the reasons they proliferate is because they can handle difficult conditions. They can access nutrients in poor soils. They may be very water efficient.” He argues weeds can also be seen as “pioneer species preparing the way for future ecosystems”.
Some GRA committee members are experimenting with weeds by laying down low-nutrient growth media in small rooftop plots and observing which weeds settle and survive. Vic-Tas co-ordinator Ben Nicholson is also hoping to raise funds for a study into what he calls “spontaneous green roofs”. Watch this space for updates.
Eco-geek reports that low-maintenance grass blankets on rooftops can insulate buildings with pitched roofs. A US manufacturer now makes it easy and practical with grass tiles. The tiles have rubber bases that allow rainwater to drain properly. However, those considering grass roofs must check with their local council. Also, always call in a structural engineer to assess roof strength. Sedums and low native grasses are more suited to some Australian climates.
London may soon be a city of ‘Living Roofs’ if the findings of a research study are adopted as part of the Mayor’s London Plan.
The Mayor’s architectural adviser Richard Rogers began to argue the case for Living Roofs in 2003, but this has been given new support in a report commissioned by Design for London and sponsored by Alumasc Exterior Building Products Limited (Alumasc).
It argues that planting green roofs and living walls delivers a number of benefits including increased biodiversity in urban living, more accessible roof space to adapt to high density development, mitigating climate change by providing improved and environmentally friendly insulation to properties and helping to provide sustainable urban drainage as well as offering an improved appearance.
A technical report underpinning the proposals will be published later this year and covers the benefits of living roofs, the current barriers to implementation and looks at international solutions. Subject to final approval the living roofs policy will form part of the revised London Plan to be published by the Mayor in March next year.
Design for London led the work to develop the living roofs policy which forms part of the Mayor’s Further Alterations to the London Plan.
Director Peter Bishop said: ‘I’m delighted that living roofs are one step closer to reality in London. In increased high density living and with the growing environmental considerations we need to explore innovative solutions.
“Living roofs looks to London’s most under-used asset - the space above our heads - to provide one such answer.’”
The Green Building Council of Australia has just announced the Green Cities Conference 08. The program is yet to be finalised, but GRA will update you about our involvement with this important event.
Succulents are known to thrive on low profile roofscapes with minimal water, low fertility mediums, high heat and windy conditions. But they can also survive on rooftops at below freezing temperatures, reports the New York Times.
Sedums and other hardy succulents can survive winter temperatures of 10, 20, even 30 degrees below zero. They are the mainstay of the green roofs now sweeping the country, because they can thrive with virtually no fertilizer and very little water in the thinnest of soils. They can take the beating sun, and they can insulate buildings from high heat as well as from bitter cold. A carpet of them can reduce storm water runoff by absorbing water like a sponge. They clean the air, and they have very few pests.
More here.
Arkansas’s KTHV reports:
Over the past two weeks, workers in Little Rock have been using a crane to hoist 90 species of plants and more than four truckloads of soil atop the former president’s library and museum. They are transforming what had been a plain looking roof into a garden surrounding Clinton’s penthouse apartment.
Instead of an expanse of concrete, the glass and steel structure will be topped by the end of this month with strawberries, ferns, switch grass, roses and other flora.
The changes may look pretty, but they’re not only for aesthetics. The roof is capturing rainwater that would normally run off onto the soil and a hidden irrigation system cuts down on the amount of water that would be used on sprinklers.
Clinton uses his nonprofit foundation to promote sustainable development and environmentally friendly building practices. He wants his library to serve as a model for buildings nationwide.
More here.
Anyone who coveted the Baggins hobbit house (above) in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy would be impressed with Andrew Maynard Architects’ contemporary take on this theme, below. The firm’s residential project in Mount Macedon, Victoria, features a full green roof, incorporating the environment to such an extent that the house appears to be growing out of the hillside, complete with large trees. The slideshow of the Mt Macedon house can be found here.
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