Cool down with green up top!

Hitting hot buttons at every turn, Green Roofs are set to transform the built environment.

Key features of Green Roofs:

> An effective buffer against heat in the summer months

> Have the potential to moderate the ‘urban heat island’

> Slow storm water run-off by 50%

> Insulating in winter

> Plant life improves local air quality and is a carbon sink

> Provide additional habitat for wildlife

> Improve the appearance of buildings from above

> Are key to developing green cities

Scandinavia and Germany have so far led the way in development and implementation of this sort of approach. In Holland the nursery stock sector has responded by producing more of the plants suitable for this application.

Green roofs in action

Up until recently the UK has been behind the game. This is set to change. Dr Nigel Dunnett from Sheffield University and a raft of regional partners, with the help of EU funding, are providing cutting edge information and practical know-how to enable wider use of Green Roofs. And this will be essential if Sheffield City goes with legislation to demand that all new medium and large buildings incorporate Green Roofs as part of their designs.

Dr Nigel Dunnett says ‘Green Roofs are essential to creating green cities and represent a fantastic way for planners, landscape architects and architects to incorporate plants and the benefits that they bring into what would otherwise be wasted space’. Now we’re talking green cities!