Can Green Roofs Be Your Ticket
To A More Profitable Company?

Free Green Roof Tips For Facility
Managers, CEO's, Municipalities And More!

  A cool green roof for commercial and industrial buildings will fall into one of three categories: roofs made from inherently cool green roofing materials, roofs made of materials that have been coated, or planted green roofs.

One of the ways to make an existing or new roof reflective is by applying a specifically designed white roof coatings (not simply white paint) on the roof's surface.

The coating must be Energy Star rated. Reflectivity and emissivity ratings for all reflective roof products can be found in the CRRC (Cool Roofs Rating Council) website.

   A green roof typically consists of an insulation layer, a waterproof membrane, and a drainage layer usually made of lightweight gravel, clay, or plastic.

A geotextile or filter mat that allows water to soak through but prevents erosion of fine soil particles; a growing medium; plants; a wind blanket.

Green roofing is classified as either intensive or extensive; some green roofing designs incorporate both intensive and extensive elements.

Intensive green roofs require at least one foot of soil and appear as a traditional garden with trees, shrubs and other attractive landscapes. They are multi-layer constructions with elaborate irrigation and drainage systems.

These green roofs are often designed for recreational purposes and accommodate foot traffic. Intensive green roofs add considerable load to a structure and require intensive maintenance, so they are more common with large businesses or government buildings rather than free-standing homes.

Avoid The Urban Heat Island Effect (It's Killing Your Energy Bills)

  For hundreds of millions to perhaps billions of people living in and near cities, urban heat islands are a growing concern.

An urban heat island occurs where the combination of heat-absorbing infrastructure such as dark asphalt parking lots and road pavement and expanses of black rooftops.

They are then coupled with sparse vegetation, raises air temperature by several degrees Celsius higher than the temperature in the surrounding countryside.

Green roofing programs advocate the use of cool roofing to mitigate the urban heat island effect and the resulting poorer air quality (in the form of smog) the effect causes.

Discover How Easily Dirt, Mud, And Live Plants Can Make You A Big Success

  Extensive green roofs usually require less maintenance. The soil is shallower (less than 6 inches) and home to smaller, lighter plants such as mosses or wildflowers.

Both types of green roofs offer a variety of benefits including:

• Improved air quality as the plants absorb and convert carbon dioxide to oxygen
• Long lifespan - some green roofs in Europe have lasted more than 40 years
• Excellent insulation
• Cooled surrounding environment

Get Cleaner, Cooler, Green Roof Technology

   By reflecting sunlight, light-colored roofs minimize the temperature rise and reduce smog formation.

In some densely populated areas, a quarter of the land cover may be roof surface alone.

To best combat the urban heat island effect a combined strategy is used to maximize the amount of vegetation by planting trees along streets and in open spaces. Also, by building green roofs, offers more potential cooling than any individual strategy.

Abating the urban heat island effect even has worthwhile effects in cooler climates.

An LBNL study showed that, if strategies to mitigate this effect, including cool green roofs, were widely adopted, the Greater Toronto metropolitan area could save more than $11 million annually on energy costs!