Check it out here…I Didn’t Know THAT Was Compostable!

Find more info about the event HERE!

We’re bringing in an expert colleague from Chicago, Greg Raymond, who has installed over a half million square feet of green roof over the last 10 years – and I recently hired a Cal Poly Graduate student as job foreman. Plus we have a new hire for an entry level laborer – let’s get this one!

We can use your help – if you know anyone at Sharp to that has any influence on purchasing, we are dealing with Time Crowe. Decision will be made by Wednesaday the 28th, so make your calls today!

www.recombinantrecords.net/Urban-Heat-Island

Green Roofs Defy Economy, See Double-Digit Growth in 2009
Chicago leads the nation in number of green roofs installed.

By: Nigel F. Maynard

Green (or sod) roofing is held up as a technology that offers a myriad of benefits for buildings as well as the general public, but perhaps it can now be labeled as recession-proof.

The non-profit green roofing industry group, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) in Toronto, Canada, says a recent survey of its corporate members revealed that the green roofing industry grew by 16.1% in 2009, even while other areas of the construction market and the economy foundered.

“Despite this fantastic progress, opportunities for future annual growth are enormous, with green roofs accounting for an estimated 10 million square feet annually in an overall flat roofing industry which replaces or builds more than 4 billion square feet in North America annually,” said Steven W. Peck, founder and president of GRHC, in a statement.

Moreover, the group’s annual Top Ten Cities List indicates that for the sixth time in a row Chicago led the nation with more than 562,000 square feet of sod roofs installed, followed at a distance by Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis.

“We are definitely seeing the emergence of more public policies and direct investment that support the implementation of green roof infrastructure due to its many public benefits, such as stormwater management, air quality improvement, and reducing the urban heat island effect,” said Jeffrey L. Bruce, chair of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.

As its name suggests, a green roof is one that consists of several layers of protected membranes and soil medium, and planted with any type of vegetation, including succulents, grasses, and other plants. It offers sound insulation for the building, promotes energy efficiency, and is said to help keep the interior of a house or building cooler.

But in addition to the benefits for the building, green roof proponents say the installations help society as a whole. It cleans the air, takes the stress off sewer systems through stormwater retention, and helps reduce the heat island effect that makes urban temperatures climb in the summer.

“Through the daily dew and evaporation cycle, plants on vertical and horizontal surfaces are able to cool cities during hot summer months,” the GRHC says on its website. “In the process of [taking water from the air and then evaporating it through their leaves], plants use heat energy from their surroundings when evaporating water.”

These attributes are the reasons more jurisdictions/cities have been interested in promoting green roof installations either in retrofits or new construction. Chicago, which is the foremost American city for green roofs, made the technology part of its commitment to green back in the early 2000s, and it’s reported that Mayor Richard Daley launched the green roof movement in the city after seeing installations in Europe.

As an example of the technology’s benefits, the City Hall building was outfitted with a sod roof and is reportedly 14 degrees to 44 degrees cooler on a summer day than the county office building across the street, which has a typical black-tar roof.

In addition, a 2005 Green Roof Grants Program has helped dozens of green roof projects throughout Chicago. At present, the city leads the nation with more than 200 green roofs that cover almost 3 million square feet.

Washington, D.C., which has been pushing green roofs as well, ranked second in 2009 with 190,377 installed square feet. Earlier this week, the city hosted the Regional Green Roofs & Walls Conference and Training, where attendees and panelists focused on how to achieve a higher level of green roof adoption in D.C. to meet a target of 20% green roof coverage by 2020.

Nigel Maynard is senior editor, products, at BUILDER magazine.

Top 10 Cities For Green Roofs

1. Chicago
2. Washington, D.C.
3. Minneapolis
4. Baltimore
5. Newtown Square, Pa.
6. New York
7. Redmond, Wash.
8. Montreal, Quebec (Canada)
9. Quebec City, Quebec (Canada)
10. Milwaukee

Source: Green Roofs for Healthy Cities

We are in the midst of creating a spectacular display in the garden show at the San Diego County Fair at Del Mar. We will be located just to the left of the stage. As the theme this year is “taste the fair”, our “Good Earth Green Café” will display three living walls – an edible wall on the side of the “café”, a beautiful patterned succulent wall adjacent to it and our famous “Obelisk” from the Art Alive show at the SD Museum of Art Balboa Park. In addition, we will have multiple veggies displayed in pots and planters placed within the display.

The crew begins work installing the small buildings tomorrow and the whole thing will come together in a couple of days. Always a project that is both fun and strenuous, when we scheduled the time two months ago we had no idea how busy we would be this month. So it becomes a challenge to cover all bases.

Also at the fair, I am doing a presentation on green walls at 5pm on the 15th of June. Admission to the garden show is free, seating is limited – so come early and enjoy the entire garden show after you have saved your seat!

Don’t they say that carrots are a negative calorie food? Great! Then we all lost some calories munching on the numerous baby carrots that we harvested an hour ago from our edible wall. And, although we haven’t eaten it (yet!) we also found a nice-sized beet, along with its little beet sidekick, as well as some delicious white strawberries. And on another product that we’re trialing, (part edible wall module, part screen), we harvested a few little baby green beans and squash. Yum!

Check them out….

Our intern from High Tech High Chula Vista, Andres, and edibles specialist (and Vegetable Gardening Instructor at Foothills Adult School) Abby Moldenhauer, digging up the herbs and vegetables and replanting the next round!

Abby holding up two carrots curled together in the shape of a heart….awwwww, how sweet!

Cleaned up and ready to be eaten!

Although they don’t look ripe, this particular variety of strawberry (White Alpine to be exact) is sweet and delicious!

Told you “we’ve got the BEET” (thanks for coming up with that title Abby!) and beans and squash!