TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

Up on the Roof: An Herb Garden?

Dennis McCafferty | Date: 03-25-10 | Comments

Now that "green" roofing projects have planted grass, mosses and vegetable plots on the tops of office buildings, a handful of entrepreneurs are aiming to do the same for homes.

Give Andy Camp credit for chutzpah. Fresh out of college, he�s launched his own company, Urban Enviroscapes, and has already landed clients like the I-Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., for which he designed and installed a "green" roof. Yes, these are the projects that involve the planting of grasses, mosses, vegetables, herbs and otherwise lush, garden-style vegetation on tops of buildings. It�s all intended to save on energy costs and reduce impact on the carbon footprint thing.

"Green" roofing residential projects like this one will become the wave of the future, predicts Andy Camp of Urban Enviroscapes.

But commercial projects like the hotel isn�t enough for Camp: He�s one of just a handful of entrepreneurs who wants to launch these roofing projects for homes. This kind of enterprise is so uncommon that the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) doesn�t even track how many residential "green roof" homes have been constructed in the United States. But that�s not stopping Camp. After all, someone had to come up with the first CFL bulb. Or solar panel. Or water-reclamation system.

�As the public gets more educated about the diverse benefits of green roofing, these applications will be poised for substantial growth,� Camp says. �We�ve learned so much about the positive effects green roofs have on energy efficiency and the environment. So it�s only a matter of time before those benefits and savings make their way to the mainstream homeowner.�

Based in Schaumburg, Ill., Urban Enviroscapes is now undertaking green-roofing projects for residential homes with a roof slanted no more than 10 degrees. And the company is now looking to develop its modular tray system�called UrbanE, which uses pre-grown roofing trays�to accommodate homes with grades up to 45 degrees.

As with other green initiatives, this one promises to save residents money. The plants insulate the roof by absorbing sunlight in the summer and providing an added layer of protection during the winter. Heating and cooling costs can be reduced from 25 percent to 95 percent, and rain runoff is reduced effectively to zero�all for $9 to $15 per square foot, Camp claims. And the rooftop�s lifetime can be extended by two to three times that of traditional roofing. With drainage layers designed to properly distribute the water, the system is fairly self-reliant when it comes to maintenance.

While this kind of effort isn�t common in the United States, it�s not such a rarity in Europe. "Sod roofs" have been standard in Scandinavia for centuries now, and cities such as Sheffield in the U.K. have even come up with what�s called "Green Roof Centres" to encourage more of this kind of construction. Also in the U.K., a company called Green Roof Systems is already building green roofing for homes with more than 24-degree sloping, thanks to a retaining system that�s used to keep panels from sliding off.

One hurdle here in the United States has nothing to do with construction challenges. It�s actually about simple economics�specifically, the ability to fund a "green-roof" home in light of the currently skittish credit market. �These green roof structures don�t appraise,� says Calli Schmidt, who tracks environmental trends for the NAHB. �There are no comps. So if you�re building a custom home and trying to get a loan, the appraiser can�t place a value on it, like a three-car garage.�