Green Roof - Environmental Benefits

Environmental Benefits

Green roofs are used to:

• Reduce heating (by adding mass and thermal resistance value)

A 2005 study by Brad Bass of the University of Toronto showed that green roofs can also reduce heat loss and energy consumption in winter conditions.

• Reduce cooling (by evaporative cooling) loads on a building by fifty to ninety percent, especially if it is glassed in so as to act as a terrarium and passive solar heat reservoir – a concentration of green roofs in an urban area can even reduce the city's average temperatures during the summer
• Reduce stormwater run off — see water-wise gardening
• Natural Habitat Creation — see urban wilderness
• Filter pollutants and carbon dioxide out of the air which helps lower disease rates such as asthma— see living wall
• Filter pollutants and heavy metals out of rainwater
• Help to insulate a building for sound; the soil helps to block lower frequencies and the plants block higher frequencies
• If installed correctly many living roofs can contribute to LEED points
• Increase agricultural space
• With green roofs, water is stored by the substrate and then taken up by the plants from where it is returned to the atmosphere through transpiration and evaporation.
• Green roofs not only retain rainwater, but also moderate the temperature of the water and act as natural filters for any of the water that happens to run off.