Award

T he green roof industry in North America grew by double-digits in 2016, with Toronto coming out on top with the most square footage of green roofing installed that same year, according to a report released in late 2017 from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) . . . and the green wall market isn't far behind. It's an exciting time to be in the green roof and wall industry. Toronto's influence – after becoming the first city in North America to require the installation of green roofs on new commercial, institutional, and multifamily residential developments across the city – is far reaching, and next year the Ontario Building Code (effective January 1, 2019) will authorize cities to pass a by-law to require the construction of green roofs, or alternative roof surfaces that achieve similar levels of performance to green roofs. "The next 12 months will be very exciting," enthuses Kees Govers at LiveRoof Ontario. "How far reaching the impact of Bill 68 will be, and how quickly, is not yet clear, but it will lead to changes in the 2019 Ontario Building Code for the first time setting a build- ing code standard for green roofs and allowing any municipality in Ontario to require green roofs. When the Ontario code changes are incorporated into the National Building Code of Canada in 2020, there is no doubt that it will eventually have a national impact." Govers says one of the main reasons for the increas- ing focus on green roofs and walls of late is the issue of stormwater management. "Most cities are running into stormwater issues; we are running out of room on the ground to deal with it," he explains. "We're seeing added stress on our systems simply because the increased imperviousness reduces the ability for rainfall to be absorbed into the soil, detained or treated. That leads to us having to capture and use stormwater as close to the source as possible, and that is on the roof." While LiveRoof's patented hybrid green roof sys- tem, which is installed on millions of square feet and over a thousand projects worldwide, is still tremen- dously successful, the rate of growth has slowed somewhat of late compared to the spike experienced a few years ago, however, with changing codes, tech- nological advancements, and greater understanding about horticultural and ecological plant diversity in green roofs, Govers expects big things in the very near future. "We had two projects with Nordstroms Canada that demonstrated interest is coming from all sec- tors now. Their Sherway Gardens and Yorkdale stores have significant green roofs of above 50 percent cov- erage, which is a first for them. Retailers are taking note," says Govers. Roland Croteau, technical advisor at Soprema, agrees with Govers and says the new building code hails exciting times for the industry. "Changing cli- mates are forcing people at a high level to consider alternative solutions to the problem, and that solu- tion comes in the form of green roofs and walls. Most cities are ill-equipped to deal with the unprece- dented amounts of precipitation we are experiencing due to their insufficient and outdated stormwater and sewer infrastructure," he explains. In fact, 23 percent of Toronto's downtown sewers are combined, meaning that both the city's storm- water and wastewater flow together within one pipe to a water treatment plant. In periods of heavy rain- fall, the amount of stormwater in the sewer can reach capacity and overflow onto Toronto's streets and into its lake and rivers, impacting an entire ecosystem. Soprema has developed several green roof sys- tems such as the Sopranature Lande system, Sopranature Green, that can be easily installed on all of its waterproofing systems and not only addresses stormwater issues but also mitigates the heat island effect, and has been used on various sized projects from tiny homes to large commercial projects. "There are so many benefits to green roofs, and people are now listening and understanding the importance of green roofs to the entire building envelope, the sur- rounding streetscape and the city." Croteau says that while Soprema is ahead when it comes to technology, the goal now is to listen to customers to find bespoke systems that will work to address the needs of the building, the city and its occupants. Steven Peck at GRHC also remarks that there con- tinues to be a lot of focus on the development, design and testing of green roof systems that are able to address stormwater management, largely in response to the incentives and regulations around stormwater. "Also, in some markets, we are seeing more intensive green roof projects built as amenity spaces, or possibly as rental spaces, where there are solid economic bene- fits in addition to energy and stormwater management for building owners and developers," says Peck. Green roofs have also become eligible for PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) financing which Peck says shifts the capital and maintenance costs onto the tax assessment of a building, reducing barri- ers associated with obtaining financing for green roof retrofits. "Longer term financing connected to the building helps to offset first cost barriers experienced by some developers since the cost and long-term ben- efits are transferred to the building owners through the PACE financing model." GRHC will soon be launching the Living Architecture Performance Tool (LAPT) for green roofs and walls. "The LAPT is like what LEED is to green buildings, and was designed to fit into LEED and Sustainable Sites voluntary standards. It pro- vides a framework to understand and work towards the best possible performance for green roofs and walls. This will help to address the challenge of many different systems, in many different climates capable of many different benefits." A PR IL 2018 | 23 Green Roofs Stormwater management and air filtration are just some benefits of green roofs and walls by NATALIE BRUCKNER-MENCHELLI Green Thumbs LiveRoof's patented hybrid green roof system. Sopranature Green system from Soprema.

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