Eco-roofs in Portland: Creating Habitat [VIDEO]

2 04 2010

Screenshot of KGW News Story

I came across this news segment from KGW News in Portland regarding the City’s eco-roof initiative and the recent visit by Dusty Gedge, president of the European Federation of Green-roof Associations. In addition to many of the other benefits of green roofs, the city is also promoting the creation of eco-roofs to establish habitat for dry riverbed species in particularly the diverse species of birds that migrate through the city. I couldn’t embed the video but here is a link to it and the transcript.  Tom Liptan, an Environmental Specialist with Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services, summed it up well by saying.

“The benefit of an eco-roof is that it provides habitat for various species that are losing that kind of habitat in most urban environments around the world.”

-Brian Phelps



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Categories : Green roof

Olympic Sized Green Roof

17 02 2010

Courtesy Vancouver Convention Centre website

The winter Olympics just kicked off with the opening ceremonies from BC Place Stadium in Vancouver. But serving as the International Broadcasting hub for the games is the Vancouver Convention Centre — the world’s first LEED Canada Platinum rated convention building. The 1.2 million SF center boasts a 6-acre green roof, which also now makes it the largest green roof in North America.

The roof is planted with over 400,000 native plants and collects rainwater for irrigation which contributes to the buildings stormwater credits as well. Other interesting sustainable features include marine and shoreline habitat restoration. Fish habitat was actually built into the buildings foundations. The building also uses seawater for heating and cooling and incorporates on-site water treatment.

The following video “Vancouver’s 6 Acre Living Green Roof”, posted on You Tube gives a great sense of the scale and context of the green roof. The landscape architect who worked on the project, Bruce Hemstock, discusses the plants used, soil media and the idea behind habitat linking into urban centers that is beginning to be made possible with the inclusion of more green roof in our cities. Interestingly enough he says one of the biggest challenges of the project was initially convincing people that it was the right thing to do.


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Categories : Green roof, LEED, Sustainable Site Strategies, Water Harvesting