Green Roofs

With green infrastructure the topic of this week's discussion, it's fitting that France has just passed a new law mandating all new rooftops to be topped with plants or solar panels. In an article releasing this news, sustainable food production and consumption advocacy group, Eat Local Grown (2016) relays the many benefits of green roofs. From passive thermal control, reducing heating and cooling energy demands, to stormwater control and habitat provision for native birds, green roofs are a comprehensive sustainable solution for urban environments. French environmental activists were advocating for a green roofing law to be passed however the inclusion of solar panels enables versatility and selectivity for the end user. This law was passed seven years ago in Toronto for all new industrial and residential buildings.

Image: Eat Local Grown 2016, France Declares All New Rooftops Must Be Topped With Plants Or Solar Panels, accessed 5 May 2016, <http://eatlocalgrown.com/article/14358-france-rooftops-plants-or-solar.html>.

Green roofs are a relatively inexpensive solution to the urban heat island effect, provision of open green space, locally grown food and are aesthetically pleasing to the eye in addition to improving air quality and reducing heating and cooling energy demand in buildings. 

With other countries catching onto the many benefits of green roofs, now is the time for Australia to enhance its own green infrastructure and realise the economic, social and environmental benefits that come with it. The study of Biophilia, human beings innate connection with nature, is now strongly embraced in the discourse of the sustainable built environment and there is abundant evidence that a visual connection with plants improves physical and mental wellbeing. So, in addition to all of the above, not only does greenery make people generally feel good, it actually contributes to increased recovery times and improves health. There is no longer an excuse to be wasting perfectly good roof space and more and more as we find better alternatives for vertical planting, there will be no excuse for wasting facades. Can we transform our buildings and eventually our cities and grow back the greenery destroyed in their construction? It's time we bring new meaning to the term 'urban jungle'.

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But maybe a greener future in our cities isn't as far away for Sydney as we think. This week, while working on a project in Penrith City Council area, I was scrolling through their DCP and was excited to come across a two-page section after their landscaping requirements promoting installment of green roofs and roof gardens. This section provided basic technical information to assist developers in the installation of green roofs as well as a comprehensive list and explanation on the many benefits offered by green roofs. The inclusion of this section in the DCP will surely encourage developers to consider green roofs or roof gardens as a landscaping option. Here's hoping that many other local councils are also advocating green roofs in their DCP's!

Source: Penrith City Council 2014, Development Control Plan