Green Industry ECOnomics - LandcareNetwork.org

Green roofs aren’t new, but they’re an exciting new service opportunity for
the green industry. Green roofs (we’re referring to engineered roofs with a
water impermeable membrane covered with a special soil mix and plants, not
a roof with solar panels) have been around for thousands of years. In fact,
they’re still common in Scandinavia for example, where sod, mostly for its
insulating qualities, is used on pitched roofs
for hundreds of years.
Richard Heller, Greener By
Design
Studies have proven that green roofs reduce
energy consumption by as much as 25 percent
on a two-story building, reduce stormwater
runoff, and can double or triple the
life of roof membranes and increase biodiversity.
For these reasons, green roofs have
become an important piece of the burgeoning
LEED certification program.
Green roofs, like this formal green roof garden for which Greener By Design won a
2007 PLANET Environmental Improvement Distinction Award, have become an
important part of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification
program and are an exciting new service opportunity for the green industry.
Case studies 69