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Green Roofs By Steven W. Peck, GRP, Honorary ALSA Living Architecture for Urban Infrastructure such as the type of system, the regional climate, what the specific design objectives are for the project, budget, structural loading ca- pacity, building surroundings, and what type of building is used. The diversity of benefits and the associated economic savings that can result from green roofs are quite astounding, and continue to evolve as the industry grows in North America, and as we collec- tively continue to invest in new product development and re- search. Stormwater continues to be a key driver of public policy sup- G port for green roofs. Every green roof will provide basic infra- structure services, such as stormwater management — slowing its movement to storm sewers and retaining a percentage of rainfall from ever reaching overburdened storm sewers. Stormwater is a massive, multi-billion dollar infrastructure challenge, with trillions of gallons of untreated stormwater rushing off the roofs, parking lots and streets of our cities each year and contaminating receiving water bodies such as rivers, lakes and estuaries. Cities such as Philadelphia, Milwaukee and New York have begun to look to 'green infrastructure' solutions such as urban forests, green roofs and green walls, bioswales and wetlands as new approaches to try to address this and other urban challenges. The City of Philadelphia's Green Cities, Clean Waters Plan, re- cently approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, calls for billions in investment to support the establishment of 9,000 green acres over 25 years to address stormwater challenges. Another important related infrastructure benefit is the ability to generate more green jobs and lasting green jobs for each public dollar invested than other infrastructure investments. Green roofs and walls are not imported from China, and many of the materials used can often be sourced within 500 miles of the project or less. Green roofs are labor intensive and require ongoing maintenance, which means lasting employment. One emerging trend, for example, is to use rooftops to grow food in cities, thereby providing additional employment associated with the planting, maintaining, harvesting, processing, selling and distributing of produce. Other green roof projects provide critical amenity space, such as Millennium Park in Chicago. Hospitals are building green roofs to provide opportunities for patients to heal through emerging practices such as horticultural therapy and to help relieve stressed staff. Commercial building owners are build- ing green roofs as amenity spaces with full or partial access to ten- ants because an increasing body of literature is showing greater productivity and less absenteeism when natural features are incor- porated into buildings — as much as 10 percent higher rates of productivity. These types of green roofs produce a multitude of in- 20 Landscape and Irrigation October 2012 reen roofs and walls provide a wide range of pub- lic and private benefits and our industry contin- ues to add new opportunities each year. The nature of the benefits provided through green roofs will vary considerably, depending on factors terlocking employment-related benefits, many of which have di- rect bottom line benefits for both governments and private sector building owners (see "Benefits" sidebar). Since 2004, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC), the North American green roof and wall industry association, has con- ducted an independent survey of its Corporate Members, collect- ing data on the growth and composition of the green roof industry across North America and to track metropolitan regions. The industry has grown steadily, but this year's Green Roof In- dustry Survey found the North American industry grew by 115 percent in 2011 over 2010 when the growth rate was 28.5 per- cent. One of the reasons for this growth is the recognition of the many public benefits of green roofs, and their ability to help ad- dress multiple infrastructure challenges by cities. Every year, the City of Chicago has been at the forefront of green roof policy de- velopment. Chicago was the co-host of the first CitiesAlive green roof conference a decade ago, and is again the co-host of the 10th Annual CitiesAlive Green Roof and Wall Conference to be held Octo- ber 17-20 (www.citiesalive.org). Chicago boasts more than 5 million square feet of green roofs installed, and has provided a range of fi- nancial and regulatory incentives for green roof development. Local and regional government support through policies and incentives have undoubtedly aided success in these leading cities. As other governments recognize the environmental, economic, and social values of green roofs through legislation and financial support, we will undoubtedly see other regions joining these lead- ers. The amazing growth of this new industry is also a function of the dedication of the hundreds of people who work in this field. In 2009, GRHC launched an accreditation program after six years of development involving a multitude of experts. The Green Roof Professional (GRP) accreditation program establishes a benchmark for multi-disciplinary knowledge that is required to successfully design, install and maintain a green roof system. The training fo- cuses on the benefits of green roofs, best practices, and problems www.landscapeirrigation.com