Green Roofs: An Eco-Friendly Concept

Green roofs are Eco-friendly and great for the environment.  The concept is simple and easy to accomplish on most all roof tops. Most big cities, when seen from above, are black or dark gray roads and rooftops,  converting the area into a heat absorbing environmental hazard. Instead of what was once trees and grass taking sunlight and C02 and converting it into oxygen.  A Lot of the bigger buildings around the world are going green on their roofs.  Planting trees and grass on roof tops is one of the best ways to reduce the Carbon Footprint of your building and add much needed oxygen to the planets atmosphere. Green roof’s typically reduce the temperature of your roof from 190 degrees to 90 degrees. Green roofs do not require a lot of maintenance. When rain comes down on your green roof, most of the rain is captured and used by the ecosystem that you have constructed.

During the day the plants and vegetation on your roof will absorb most of the heat, keeping your building nice and cool during the day.  After the sun has gone down, your roof continues to work for you by keeping your building warm with the heat absorbed during the day.  Other advantages of having a green roof include extending the life of your roof, filtering dust and pollution, raises green credentials of the owner of the building, improves the aesthetics of your building and reduces rain runoff by 90%.

The types of plants you can use on your green roof depends on how much room you have and whether aesthetics are important. You can make your roof look like a park with trees, grass and a swing set, if you want. If you do not have much room and aesthetics are not important, you could just plant different mosses which will do the same job as other plants and trees.  Green roof technology has really expanded in Germany where 12% of the country’s buildings have green roofs and demand for green roofs has risen 15% per year since the concept began.  Just the area of a 2 car garage, if planted like a green roof will supply enough oxygen for 25 people over the course of one year.