Green Roofs

Chicago City Hall's green roofInstalling a green roof involves more than just growing plants on your roof; you will need to consider structural integrity, accessibility, and maintenance issues. Green roofs offer a host of benefits, particularly in urban environments where they can provide a visual connection to nature, reduce the urban heat island effect, and help mitigate stormwater runoff.

Green roofs may also be called living, vegetated, or eco-roofs, and consist of a of a layered system: waterproofing membrane, root barrier, drainage layer, lightweight soil or engineered growing medium, and vegetation. This layered system provides extra insulation for the building, which can reduce heating and cooling demands. Green roofs can offer habitat for native plants and animals, and may also be designed to be accessible to building occupants as an amenity. Although they usually cost more than a typical roof, green roofs protect your underlying roof system from damaging ultraviolet rays and temperature fluctuations, enhancing its durability and extending its life. 

Consult with an experienced professional when considering a green roof, and involve the architect, engineer, and landscape architect in an integrated approach to design, code, and maintenance issues.

Selecting the...

Helping you make key choices

Implementing key green building strategies often comes down to key choices—what kind of green roof, what kind of rainwater harvesting system, and more. LEEDuser helps you with:

  • A Choices section on key strategy pages, laying out your options and why you should go with one path or the other.
  • Wondering how a strategy works on your project type? We cover those implications, when they’re important.
  • Cost implications explored as much as possible.
  • We look at choices from all angles—including strong environmental and practical perspectives.

Helping you get it done

How do you take a good green building idea actually implement it on your project? LEEDuser talks you through complex green building strategies with:

  • Checklists covering all the key action steps you'll need to implement the strategy.
  • Hot tips to give you shortcuts and avoid pitfalls.
  • Cost tips to assess what a credit will actually cost, and how to make it affordable.
  • Ideas for going beyond LEED with best practices.
  • Major considerations by project phase.

Your green building reference library

Why waste time chasing down referenced standards and supporting resources when LEEDuser links you directly to the ones you need? LEEDuser has gathered all the best tools out there and organized them by credit for easy reference. Members get links to:

  • Organizations that can give information or help on a credit or strategy.
  • Standards or studies that are key reference points.
  • Articles that help explain important topics.
  • Key documents or references for needed inputs.
  • Software tools you can use to run calculations or simulations.

7 Comments

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Johanna Ordaz
Oct 06 2010
Member
25 Thumbs Up

Green Roof in Florida

Can some explain why Green Roof are not built in South Florida? What is the reason...
If there are some Green Roof where are they located. Thanks!

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Tristan Roberts Editorial Director – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, Inc. Oct 08 2010 Moderator

I would check Green Roofs for Healthy Cities for resources on this. I think there are green roofs, maybe it's just not an area where they've taken off in a big way. It really varies in part based simply on whether there's someone who cares enough to make it happen, like Chicago's mayor.

I wonder if hurricane codes affect requirements, though?

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Lauren Ford Project Architect, Cooper Carry Jan 25 2012 Member 167 Thumbs Up

We've looked at Live Roof system for a Florida project. Live Roof has been tested to 120mph - but our project is in a zone of 140mph.

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Shriram Bhide
Oct 30 2009
Guest
250 Thumbs Up

Cost comparison between green roofs and other roofing systems

JIm,
Thanks for the links on green roofs, however, these do not give me the delta cost difference between different roofing systems or how much cost premium is involved for green roofs over other systems.
Thanks!

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Tristan Roberts Editorial Director – LEEDuser, BuildingGreen, Inc. Nov 13 2011 Moderator

You will find cost premium for green roofing and other roofing systems in the Cost of LEED report.

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Jim Newman Principal Linnean Solutions
Oct 30 2009
Member

Comprehensive Info on Green Roofs

Several resources are available on Green Roofs.
"Green Roof Systems" by Susan Weiler and Katrin Scholz-Barth.
http://www.buildinggreen.com/biblio/item.cfm?itemID=405258

Also, take a look at the Green Roof Systems section listings on BuildingGreen.com
http://www.buildinggreen.com/auth/productsByCsiSection.cfm?show=all&csiM...

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Shriram Bhide
Oct 30 2009
Guest
250 Thumbs Up

Green Roofs

Please educate me on costs for the following:
4" green roof:
6 to 8" green roof:
Regular coal-tar built-up roofA roof covering consisting of several successive layers (each of which is called a "ply"), usually of roofing felt, with mopping of hot asphalt between layers and topped by a mineral-surfaced layer or by gravel embedded in a heavy coat of asphalt.:
White coating on built-up roof:
Fully adheared Epdm roof with white reflective surface:
Built-up roof with Gravel:

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