Up on the Rooftop

What do we have an abundance of, but has only one real use and could actually cost us extra money in the long run if not used properly and if used properly could actually save money and help reduce CO2 in the air?  Our roofs!

Doesn’t make much sense right, let me explain.  Everyone who has a house, business or a building has a roof on it, there is the abundance.  The only perceived use for a roof is keeping homes from the elements, however these very elements  could end up costing us more money in the long run.  The cost thing is totally debatable, but this is what I am referring to.  Our roofs bake in the sun through the summer keeping our attic spaces a scorching temp, which means that either our AC runs more often or harder trying to keep the house cool.  In the winter heat rises up into the attic and then out through our roofs, making our heating units work harder to keep our houses a nice temp.  Read on for the CO2 reduction.

So what if we gave our roofs a second job?  What if we, as home owners, turned our roofs into living roofs or roof gardens?  What if every restaurant put an herb garden or seasonal veggie garden on their roof to use in their restaurants?  What if big businesses added a roof top garden for employees to use as a lunch spot or as a place to take their breaks during the day?  What would be the benefits?  Why even think about doing this?

Courtesy of Metaefficient

Roof gardens help with so many different aspects of life, without really needing anything in return from us.  They help insulate  from the outside in by absorbing the heat and cold before it has a chance to get into our attic and crawl space.  Which will benefit your heating/cooling bill by making your AC/heating unit work more efficiently.  While being more efficient roof gardens also help with outside noise.  The insulation from the plants  helps filter out the noise from outside, I’m all for a quieter house.  If you have a semi flat roof you could actually end up having a place to grow veggies and other edible plants or adding a nice seating area just to relax.  Those with a pitched roof that would be a pretty hard harvest, but not impossible depending on the pitch.  The beauty of a roof garden is really under rated.  A lot of homes in Europe already have roof gardens and when you see them all green and swaying in the wind, it really is an amazing site. Green roofs are also  very ecologically savvy.  Green roofs help reduce the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere due to the vegetation absorbing CO2 to help with photosynthesis which in turn improves air quality.  So imagine if an entire neighborhood  switched to green roofs, the air in that neighborhood should, in theory, end up with improved air quality.  Reducing CO2 emissions is something that we should all be worried about.  This is a way for us to help, without a huge change in our regular lifestyle which is really hard to do/maintain.   A little recap of the home perks for us personally.  They reduce our heating/cooling bills, they are beautiful to look at and they can function as an added outdoor space/garden. The perks for everyone is the reduction of CO2 in our environment.

There are other big perks to a green roof, but listing everything would make for a very long post.  Here’s just a few that I really want to mention though.  Green roofs can incorporate rain water storage  and can be used in conjunction  with gray water systems as well.

OK so all of these pro’s are great, but is it really worth it?  what about watering and all the other things that are hard enough to do with a land based garden and now you have to do it on a roof.  Well here’s a couple of things to think about.  Roof gardens can be anything you want  They can be native plants that will grow and flourish without your “help”, they could be veggies and fruits that you will have to water and tend too, they could be a combo of both or depending on your roof space, and money, they could be an amazing full scale garden with all the bells and whistles you could want or as simple as a few planters with plants in them.

Graze the Roof Garden – Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco picture from insideurbangreen.org There are so many different ways of putting a roof top garden together, and I am not an expert so I won’t be telling you how to go about it, but there are so many companies that have started taking on these projects.  I’ve listed a few below.

http://www.duro-last.com/

http://www.carlisleroofgardens.com/Default.aspx

http://www.roof-gardens.net/

http://www.greengridroofs.com/greenroofs.htm

http://www.livingroofsinc.com/about_us/?x=1

Thank you for reading this far, or at least skimming!  Look for a follow up on Green roof tops for big office buildings & what if an entire town installed green roofs.