“Green Roofs”
The term “Green Roof” can mean different things to different people. Typically, a “Green Roof” is considered to be a vegetated system, including plants and soil or other growth medium planted over a waterproof roofing system. New innovative systems incorporate the use of preplanted trays. This type of system is less labor intensive to install and achieves desired results in a relatively short time.
Roof Systems that incorporate the use of photovoltaic modules, solar panels, recycled materials, or other forms of Green technology may also be referred to as a “Green Roof”.
Green Roofs have been around for centuries in Scandanavia. Germany has been at the fore front of modern development of these systems since the early 1960′s. Most recently, the demand has increased in the United States as a result of renewed interest in the environment as well as the many direct benefits, such as carbon reduction, urban heat island effect, and storm water management – just to name a few.
We should expect the trend towards “Green Roof” practices to continue and evolve.
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