Causecast

by CLAIRE MORGENSTERN, Contributing Writer

Whether you live in a big city with little green space or just want to make small changes to your home that will add up to big environmental and economical impact, creating a green roof is a great option. The enviro-trendy phrase “green roof” refers to a roof partially or completely covered in vegetation that absorb CO2 while rerouting excess rainwater and deflecting the sun’s rays, which can ultimately cut a building’s heating and cooling costs. However, if you’re not ready to invest in a full-on greening of your house or building’s rooftop, there are also a lot of minor changes you can make to your roof that will make your house more environmentally friendly.

Step One: Roofing Materials

Paint your roof white. This will deflect heat away from the roof, which will naturally cool down your house and eliminate the need to blast your AC during the summer months. It also offsets CO2, which will help control climate change.

Use eco-friendly roofing materials. Need to repair or replace your roof? Look into using shingles made from recycled materials such as plastic milk containers, soda cans, tires, even carpet. Finally, a use for all that shag carpeting left over from the 70s.

• If you’re jonesin’ for wood shingles, make sure they’re certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). By purchasing FSC-endorsed materials, you are helping to protect forests and other wild habitats around the world.

• If you’re not into wood, choose an alternative roofing material such as aluminum, steel, slate, or clay, all of which have a longer life span than traditional asphalt roofs and are also relatively energy efficient.

Step Two: Alternative Energy

Install skylights or solar tubes. Both are a great way to reduce electricity costs. Skylights allow more natural light into the home, eliminating the need for electric lighting during the day. Better yet, Energy Star skylights can reduce energy costs by up to 40 percent compared to conventional skylights.

Solar tubes, also called tubular skylights or sun tubes, save energy just like traditional skylights do, but are less expensive and easier to install. However, they won’t give you the same vista-like views of the sky that conventional skylights afford.

• Install solar panels or solar shingles. While your neighbors complain about mounting electric bills, you’ll be harnessing the power of the sun – for free! Solar shingles work much like their larger panel counterpart, but they’ll usually fit right in with your existing shingles and be less noticeable from the street.

Before you install solar panels, however, beware: depending on where you live, you may need a special permit or be restricted to certain areas of your home. Check with your local zoning board to be safe.

• Harness wind energy. Investigate the feasibility of installing a wind turbine on your roof. In some cases, this will mean obtaining a special permit before the turbine goes up.

Step Three: Get Planting!

Plant a rooftop garden. Experiment with growing plants in pots, windowboxes, and other containers. This way, the roots and drainage system of the plants are contained and won’t interfere with the structural capacity of the roof.

Install rain barrels. Rain barrels collect rainwater than you can recycle for outdoor use…say, to water your new rooftop garden.

Step Four: Going All The Way

While green roofs may have come back into vogue recently, they’ve been around for hundreds of years. One of the first and most famous green roofs is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Today, Chicago and Toronto proudly display green roofs on top of their City Hall buildings, as does the Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Green roofs provide a myriad of benefits to both you and the environment, including serving as viable storm water management systems, increasing energy efficiency, filtering outside air, insulating buildings, extending the life of the roof membrane, increasing property values, eliminating heat islands (urban areas in which the overall temperature is much higher than normal) and providing safe habitats for wildlife.

There are two types of green roof systems. Extensive systems are meant for large rooftops not accessible to the public, and contain between one and six inches of soil. Extensive systems can support between 15 and 50 pounds per square foot. Intensive systems contain between six and 24 inches of soil and can support between 80 and 150 pounds per square foot.

The good news is that improving your roof will ultimately improve your budget, too. While you&‘ll most likely shell out between eight and 15 dollars per square foot up front to create your dream green roof, you’ll more than make that up in the money you save on energy bills and roof maintenance, as green roofs generally last more than twice as long as conventional roofs. However, we can’t put a price on how much positive impact your green roof will have on the environment overall.

Nearly all green roof experts recommend hiring a professional landscaper or contractor to design and implement a full green roof system. This person will be able to assess your roof’s capacity for greening based on the natural climate, the height and slope of the roof, the amount of extra weight it can support, and the existing drainage, electrical, and water supply systems currently in place. However, if you want to assess the potential cost and feasibility of making your roof a green one, here’s where you should start.

• Find out how much weight your roof can hold. This number will affect the quantity and types of plant life that can thrive there.

• Note whether your roof is sloped or flat. Flat roofs are easier and cheaper to green. It’s still possible to create a green roof on a sloped surface, but you may end up spending more on a system to hold the soil in place.

• Learn about the drainage, water, and electrical systems already in place on your roof, as well as how much sun and wind your roof gets.

• Be prepared to tell your contractor who has access to your roof and who will perform maintenance on the green roof system after installation.

Looking for the right expert to make your green roof dreams come true? Visit the Green Roofs For Healthy Cities website for more information.

If you live in a big city, why not join your community for some urban farming? Check out Causecast’s list of best cities for urban gardening.

Photo by secretlondon123, flickr.