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Green Things Are Sprouting High In The Sky In The Joburg Inner City
Green Things Are Sprouting High In The Sky In The Joburg Inner City
Those things are spinach, basil and lettuce, planted in hydroponic farms on skyscraper rooftops in a project called the Urban Agriculture Initiative (UAI).
The UAI has been developed by the Johannesburg Inner City Partnership (JICP) with support from the City of Johannesburg, the Department of Small Business Development, the Small Enterprise Development Agency, and SAB Kickstart.
“The JICP has played a role in incubating, facilitating, and enabling this project. It is this work that has been initiated in the inner city with a view to perfecting it there and then replicating it elsewhere in the city and indeed in the country,” says Anne Steffny, a director at JICP.
Story and picture by Lucille Davie
“I would like to thank you and the members of the JICP, on behalf of the Executive Mayor, for your constructive engagement with the City and their shared commitment to reclaiming the Inner City,” says André Coetzee, the Director: Policy & Research in the Executive Mayor’s office.
The JICP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the City’s Department of Social Development. They both have a common purpose, namely, creating jobs, developing youth, ensuring food security and resilience as well as providing access to entrepreneurial opportunities.
One of the initiators of the UAI, Dr Michael Magondo from business incubator Wouldn’t It Be Cool (WIBC) and a director of JICP, believes that the “UAI is not about putting the farm on the roof, it’s about the lives that can be changed.”
Thirty-three year-old Puseletso Mamogale grew 3 600 fledgling spinach seedlings in August - arranged in A-fame racks of 10 shelves – on the rooftop of a building at 1 Fox Street. She harvested them after four weeks, and sold them to a local restaurant. She is now planting basil seedlings, a more lucrative crop.
The plants are grown in a medium that holds them upright while their roots reach through the pot into a tray below, filled with nutrient-rich water. Plastic sheet-roof tunnels keep them warm in winter, and protect them from storms and hail in summer. The sheeting can be rolled back to release heat.
Hydroponic farms of 300m² can produce the equivalent of one hectare of open farm production. Water costs are between R70 to R200 monthly, up to 95% less than conventional farming. This means that the hydroponic farm has 26 annual crop cycles, compared to four to five crop cycles with open-field farms.
Mamogale is a graduate of the WIBC, a programme that seeks to take young people aged 18 to 35 and to turn them into entrepreneurs. So far 13 farm entrepreneurs have been trained, and 25 are about to receive training. It has as its mission to “foster job creation through the creation of an urban agricultural entrepreneurial ecosystem supporting young black, urban farmers”.
It was launched in October 2017 with Nhlanhla Mpati’s farm, bursting with lush basil, on the roof of the Minerals Council South Africa building in Main Street. He started with 300 plants and in just over six months he had 1 000 plants eagerly waiting delivery to nearby restaurants. He calls his enterprise Gegezi Organics, and in just 66m² of rooftop space and 21 days he has produced 110kgs of basil. Another rooftop farmer is Mapaseka Dlamini, whose garden overflows with gourmet lettuce and basil plants. She now employs four people and supplies restaurants in Maboneng.
Other farms are in Hillbrow and Newtown, with rooftops supplied by the Outreach Foundation, the Jozi Housing Company, and the Joburg Land Company. There are two farms on the rooftops of FNB Bank City in the CBD. The training that entrepreneurs undergo is intense. Before they are given their starter packs of seedlings, pots, irrigation systems and pumps, they have to present a business model, including potential customers for their produce. They are given financial support from the WIBC, with an interest-free loan.
Quincy, Illinois - Barb Wehmer Has A Suggestion When Space Is Short But Gardening Interest Isn't.
By Deborah Gertz Husar Herald-Whig
August 20, 2018
QUINCY - Barb Wehmer Has A Suggestion When Space Is Short But Gardening Interest Isn't.
Try a vertical garden.
"It makes sense to garden upright," Wehmer said.
The Quincy native worked with vertical farming and an urban green roof in downtown St. Louis designed to grow produce to help feed the poor. After changes in the St. Louis-based company and the death of her husband, Wehmer decided to come back home after 35 years away -- and bring the same ideas to the Quincy area.
"Like anything in life, it's wonderful if you can find a job and something you love and have passion behind," she said. "This kind of thing can change the world. If one kid would learn how to garden and teach his brothers and sisters, it would just take off. But first somebody has got to teach it."
Wehmer works with people in the sustainable, organic and live growing industry and her business, Sustainable Sales, offers products at sustainablesales.net to support that including living walls, essentially a vertical framework that can be planted to flowers, herbs or vegetables in settings including homes, businesses and schools.
"What I really love is teaching children how to garden and farm at school. They can take that knowledge home to their families," she said. "Kids have to learn now everything comes from the grocery store."
Wehmer hopes to tap into an "upsurge" in interest in community gardening efforts in Quincy and beyond and in teaching skills people can use to sustain themselves and their families. Growing your own produce also lessens food safety concerns and the cost of buying food.
"Kids love this sort of thing," which fits into the growing farm to school movement, Wehmer said, and because the living walls are handicapped-accessible, "any child with special needs can wheel up to this unit."
Easy accessibility also benefits senior gardeners. With nursing home residents, Wehmer points to a study that found gardening was one of the things they missed the most. "This unit can be put on casters and can be used inside or outside," she said.
Planted into compost, the living wall "is completely hand water able," she said. "It has an integral drip irrigation line that you can plug in or water by hand just like you water the garden."
The Quincy area -- with its proximity to farmland, support of farmers market and strong base of knowledgeable gardeners -- is a prime location for Wehmer's passion which can find financial support from a variety of sources.
Grants are "available to Head Start, daycare, preschool and grade school up to high school" to cover costs involved, she said. "I just need to get a school to say to me 'show us how to do it.' I've got it ready to go. I've done all the research."
"The Hague Urban Greenhouse Cannot Be Made Profitable"
After more than two months following the bankruptcy of The Hague’s urban greenhouse by Urban Farmers, it has become clear that a revival is not possible. In the past months, the bankruptcy trustee has investigated the possibilities for this. The investigation has also shown the greenhouse has never been profitable.
In Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf the bankruptcy trustee, Mr. Martijn Vermeeren, of Buren Legal, says he did not find a new party. "We did our best but in the end no one was prepared to make a serious bid. There have been interested parties, but they deemed it impossible to make it profitable at that location."
Health centre
In the coming months, the activities on the roof will be terminated by the Municipal Fund for Space and Economy The Hague (FRED), shareholder of a third of the shares of the building. The breeding of the fish will be concluded. The facilities on the roof of the urban greenhouse turned out to be of little value.
Rooftop farm
The rooftop farm was an expensive project: the greenhouse has been fully constructed with double glazing – and the inner layer is also layered glass. In order to withstand the wind, a profile was developed in which the glass is anchored with screws. Various glass pane sizes were used in order to distribute the pressure on the construction. The greenhouse itself is divided into two parts – one part for the visitors and a part for cultivation.
Altogether it turned out not to be a viable plan. "The costs remained too high and the turnover low. The stakeholders couldn't agree on the strategy. One of the directors left in February 2017 and the stakeholders disagreed on the new director to be appointed. Partly because of the bankruptcy of one of the shareholders (UrbanFarmers AG in Switzerland), and the departure of various stakeholders, further decision-making or restructuring is impossible. FRED has subsequently been forced to file for bankruptcy", can be read in the bankruptcy report.
New Plan
Meanwhile Rob Baan, intrigued by the project, is working on a new plan for the urban greenhouse. He wants to turn it into a Health Center to provide some of the poorest neighborhoods in the Netherlands with good nutrition and sufficient vegetables.
Not profitable in the current state
That the bankruptcy trustee after two months comes to the conclusion that a revival is not profitable, does not surprise him. "This should not come as a surprise. In fact everyone already knew that it was not a profitable project, which is also apparent from the bankruptcy report, which states that loss was incurred from day one."
The bankruptcy was declared just before the summer. In order to make his plan feasible, Baan is now in discussion with various parties. "There are several players who have an interest in better health for the surrounding neighborhoods in The Hague. So we are talking to insurers, ministries and also to the municipality."
A stumbling block is the current price per square meter. "That price is high. Even the best tomato growers cannot cultivate profitably with such a rental price. Also the commercial urban greenhouse has stumbled over it. I am not keen on that at all. A health center is my dream, I would like to share my vision, but not at any price."
Publication date : 9/18/2018
Urban Farming Flourishes In Paris
Sidney Delourme and Sarah Msika, winners of a public call for urban-farming projects in Paris, on the future site of one of the biggest urban farms in France. (Cultivate)
City of Lights is one of the least green among major cities; some Parisians want to change that
September 18, 2018
PARIS—Sidney Delourme gets really passionate when showing pictures of his ambitious project. For now, it is just a huge rooftop in Paris overlooking rails and old towers with the Montmartre hill in the background, but his drawings show plans for green and wooden spaces.
The 31-year-old is developing a huge urban farm in the heart of Paris, which is often cited for its lack of green space compared to its large population size. A study by MIT’s Sensible City Lab published in January found that Paris is the least green city among 10 major cities studied.
An employee of urban farming start-up Aeromate checks on vegetables and aromatic herbs growing on the rooftop of a building owned by French public transport group RATP, as part of a rooftop farming project in Paris on Aug. 24, 2017. (Benjamin Cremel/AFP/Getty Images)
People like Delourme want to change that. With his working-partner and co-founder Sarah Msika, they are in the process of securing further funding to turn the rooftop of a former railway site into an innovative urban farmcovering 7,000 square meters (1.7 acres).
The duo intend to plant purple basil, chocolate mint, ancient lettuce, and edible flowers in the farm. The facility will have many innovative features, including a greenhouse that gets its heat from a data center located below, hydroponics cultures—a method of growing plants in water rather than in soil—and space for permaculture. Plans are also in place to include a store to sell some of the produce, as well as areas for educational activities.
Samples of Oyster mushroom grown by urban farming company La boîte à Champignon in the basement of a supermarket in Paris. (La boîte à Champignon)
“It will be the biggest urban farm in France and Europe when it opens, hopefully in the third quarter of 2019,” Delourme said.
It will be one of the biggest, at least. There are other similar projects under development in France, among them a project to develop a 10,000-square-meter (2.5 acres) urban farm on the rooftop of a large logistic platform in Ivry-sur-Seine in the south of Paris.
A Boom
There has been a dramatic increase in urban farming in France over the past few years.
“I remember that two years ago, when we started to get organized and worked with Agroparitech—a prestigious French school and research center in life science and agronomy—we were only seven project developers,” said Grégoire Bleu, co-founder and president of the French Association of Urban Farming (AFAUP).
Grégoire Bleu (L), CEO of La Boîte à Champignons and president of the French Association of Professional Urban Farming, talks with fellow company co-founder Arnaud Ulrich in their office at Les Grands Voisins in Paris. (Alexia Luquet/Special to The Epoch Times)
“Today, we can estimate that there are anywhere between 200 to 300 projects under development,” he added.
Bleu said the figures only account for professional projects, meaning those that have at least one full-time employee. To get closer to the real number of sizeable urban farming projects, he said the figure has to be doubled to account for those that may not have full-time employees. That doesn’t even include the not-for-profit and smaller-scale initiatives such as community gardens, which are much larger in number.
Paris Leading the Trend
Bleu himself is co-founder and CEO of an urban-farming company, La Boîte à Champignons, with multiple operations between Paris and Rennes in the region of Brittany.
“The trend is everywhere in France. From what I know, 45 percent of the projects are based in Paris and 55 percent outside. Cities such as Marseille, Lyon, Rennes, Lille, Strasbourg are very dynamic, but I must admit the phenomenon, at least regarding its news coverage, started in Paris,” Bleu explained.
Inside one a “cooltainer” close to Bercy in Paris, where the start-up Agricool grows strawberries (Alexia Luquet/Special to The Epoch Times)
Delourme concurs: “Paris has been the driver of the movement.” Their rooftop project won a major urban-farming competition in February, one of several introduced by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo under an initiative called Parisculteurs.
“Paris has a very structured approach: They started with auditing all underexploited or empty public buildings, and within three years, they had prepared a hundred sites so that they could accommodate urban farms,” said Delourme.
The Parisculteurs jury panel that chooses the award-winners boasts many experts, including the internationally-renowned Italian architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri, who designed the famous Bosco Verticale, or vertical forest, in Milan.
A conceptual image of the iconic Tour Montparnasse in Paris after renovations with a greenhouse at the top. (Nouvelle AOM)
There are more initiatives to encourage urban farming in Paris as well, including incentives for construction projects.
“Since 2016 in Paris, city planning rules have been allowing us to construct beyond the maximum height limitations only if we build an agricultural greenhouse,” said Frédéric Chartier, who co-founded the architecture studio Chartier Dalix along with his wife Pascale.
Their firm is part of the Nouvelle AOM consortium, which won the bid to oversee a 300-million-euro ($350 million) project to renovate the iconic Tour Montparnasse skyscraper ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Part of their design is a 59-foot-high biosphere greenhouse on top of the skyscraper to grow vegetables, which will partly be consumed by occupants of the building.
Once done, Tour Montparnasse would become the highest urban farm in Paris, visible from different locations in the city. “A strong symbol,” Dalix said.
Frédéric Chartier, co-founder of Chartier Dalix Studio, in his Paris office. He is reading the booklet presenting one of his delivered projects incorporating urban farming, the Biodiversity School and Gymnasium at Boulogne Billancourt, near to Paris. (Alexia Luquet/Special to The Epoch Times)
It’s no surprise to Dalix that the City of Lights is leading the trend in urban farming.
“Paris is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with few green areas, so it makes sense that people want to reverse the situation.”
Still, business-focused urban farms in the Paris area currently account for just 5 percent of total urban cultivated areas, according to Maison de l’Agriculture Urbaine—or the House of Urban Farming. The vast majority of the farms are driven by non-profit projects, a gap that points out the largest challenge for taking urban farming to the next level: creating a profitable business.
Successful Business Models
According to Bleu, efficient business models still need to be developed further for urban-farming companies to prosper.
Bleu said their own secret for success lies in employing circular economy principles, such as re-using waste and unused urban residue in their operations.
Vegetables and aromatic herbs being grown on the rooftop of a building owned by French public transport group RATP, as part of a rooftop farming project by urban farming start-up Aeromate in Paris on Aug. 24, 2017. (Benjamin Cremel/AFP/Getty Images)
For example, they use coffee grounds to cultivate oyster mushrooms in the basement of a supermarket, and offer their products to nearby supermarkets and restaurants. They further diversify their operation by selling growing kits that can be ordered online, and offer educational kits for school students.
This is what Bleu calls “an ecosystemic approach” to urban farming: their project aims at reconciling social, economic, and environmental issues through different initiatives such as recycling urban waste, air purification through green space, the creation of social unity using the economic cycle, and providing educational programs for children.
“Our cities are in a poor condition from an ecosystemic perspective. So what matters to us is to understand how we can cleverly integrate urban metabolism,” he said.
Agricool
One of France’s urban farming startups that has succeeded in attracting millions in funds is Agricool, which grows fruit and vegetables in containers.
Agricool founders Guillaume Fourdinier and Gonzague Gru, 31 and 30 years old, respectively, and both sons of traditional farmers, managed to turn a personal challenge into a promising business venture in three years.
Guillaume Fourdinier, CEO and co-founder of Agricool, in his La Courneuve office, near Paris, in front of a “cooltainer,” dedicated to research and development. (Alexia Luquet/Special to The Epoch Times)
The initiative started when Fourdinier broke his leg and decided to kill time by challenging himself to grow strawberries in his apartment. Today, their startup employs 53 full-time employees, and has raised 12 million euros ($14 million) from private investors, a first in French urban-farming history.
Agricool uses refurbished shipping containers—called cooltainers—to grow strawberries using hydroponic methods, specially designed LEDs, air conditioning, and bumblebees for pollination.
“We collect strawberries every morning except Sundays and then we supply our distributors, all located in the neighborhood, and some supermarkets and gourmet food shops,” Charlotte Mignol, a “co-oltivator” at Agricool, said while completing her daily harvest in a white jumpsuit to follow hygienic precautions.
The company has built four operating boxes in Paris region and wants to build more in the near future and expand to other types of products such as tomatoes.
Fourdinier touts their company as an environmentally responsible organization. “By purchasing and eating this type of strawberry—GM [genetically modified]—free, pesticide-free, transport-free—instead of a basket full of GM [strawberries grown with] pesticide and [requiring] transportation, don’t you think it makes sense for the environment and for your health?”
Currently, the company sells an average of 200 boxes of strawberries a day, which is not yet enough to turn a profit. But Fourdinier is confident that their business model will work.
“It can be summed up in a single word: sales-volume.” They have set an objective to be profitable by 2021.
Feeding Cities?
Fourdinier’s ambition for urban farming isn’t limited to his operations alone. He believes urban farming could one day supply one-third of the nation’s produce needs.
“Can urban farms feed our cities? I believe they can,” Fourdinier said enthusiastically.
Bleu is more conservative in his assessment.
“In France, urban farming is still more focused on projects driven by associations that tend to meet local needs and create social unity,” he said.
For him, there is no competition between rural and urban farming. “It’s like a bear being scared of a hamster,” he said.
In his assessment, food produced by urban farming is still very negligible, and will remain that way, except for niche products such as high-quality mushrooms or micro-green projects.
But he raises a question: “Can Parisians—city people in general—afford not to have agricultural areas downtown? I don’t think so.”
'Green Monster' Is Taking On A Whole New Meaning At Fenway Park
The luscious green produce at Fenway Park
Stacy Buchanan
August 31, 2018
On a hot summer day at Fenway Park there’s a different kind of team, hard at work, on a very different type of field. High above Yawkey Way, along the 3rd Base side of the stadium, you’ll find Fenway Farms, a 5,000-square-foot working farm that's growing produce that is being served at Fenway and donated to a local food rescue. Instead of Wally or home runs, we’re talking about peas, kale, and scallions, to name just a few of the many varieties of produce growing here.
Jessie Banhazl, CEO & Founder of Green City Growers
Stacy Buchanan
The relatively lightweight milk crate farm was installed by Recover Green Roofs and is managed by Green City Growers (GCG), who also maintain the largest rooftop farm in New England atop the Whole Foods in Lynnfield. GCG was introduced to Linda Henry after winning an award through the Henry Foundation, which led to the Fenway Farms partnership. A spot had already been designated by Henry as a potential green roof, and a little bit of that magic that lives in Fenway must have been at work because the space happened to be furnished with perfect growing conditions for a rooftop farm.
The milk crate system at Fenway Farms
Stacy Buchanan
“The milk crate system was chosen because it is very mobile and modular, like Legos,” says Jessie Banhazl, CEO & Founder of Green City Growers. There are over 2,000 milk crates and the small boxes can be arranged to take up every available space, which is helpful given the unusual angles and shape of the roof. But there’s big return for such a relatively small farming space – the farm currently cultivates about 6,000 pounds of produce annually!
“I’m so spoiled now,” says Fenway’s Executive Chef, Ron Abell. “The care and nurturing [GCG] put into it, the organic nature, it’s incredible.” When asked his favorite part of having Fenway Farms in his operation, Abell says, “The food travels 100 feet and it’s in my kitchen. You don’t have to do much to it and it tastes amazing.”
“Luckily, baseball season happens to align perfectly with the growing season in New England,” Banhazl explains, so the farm operates primarily while the park is in full swing. That means fans can often see the farmers at work, harvesting produce or tending to the crops. It is also one of the most popular stops on the park tour, where approximately 10,000 people a week get to see “the best farm team in baseball” as the guide punned to the group who passed through during our visit.
Fenway’s Executive Chef Ron Abell picks peppers from the rooftop farm
Stacy Buchanan
The farm is split into two spaces. There’s an area of closely controlled farm rows that maintain the strict standards required by the park’s food production company, Aramark, and grows about 35% of the produce served in the EMC Club throughout the season. Then there’s the vineyard vines deck, which grows produce around its perimeter and between event spaces. This area hosts youth and community engagement programs, like the Fenway Rooftop Sessions, and 100% of the produce grown here is donated to Lovin’ Spoonfuls, the largest food rescue agency in New England.
Patrons of the ballpark tour admire the rooftop farm
Stacy Buchanan
Chef Abell, in his 12th season at Fenway Park, creates a new menu at the EMC Club for every home stand. “I like to experiment,” he says. “Being this close to the produce really gets your creative juices flowing and opens your mind to what you can do with it. Like kohlrabi – we use it in root vegetable hash, shaved on to salads, and even pickled – it’s great!”
The culinary team strives to be as zero-waste as possible, using as much of the produce grown as possible – carrot tops in pesto, beet greens in salads, and a variety of preserving techniques for whatever can’t be used fresh during the baseball season. Late-season tomatoes are roasted and frozen for stocks and braises, chilies are turned into hot sauce, and cucumbers and green tomatoes are pickled. “What we harvest here can make its way around to almost anywhere in the ballpark,” Chef Abell said. Look out for items, such as a kale Caesar wrap made with kale from the farm next time you’re at Fenway.
Fresh herbs growing in the vineyard vines club
Stacy Buchanan
The choice of what to grow on this small-scale farm is an annual collaboration between Green City Growers, Chef Abell, and his team. The variety is impressive, producing everything from hearty greens and root vegetables to French breakfast radishes, and of course, copious amounts of scallions for Chef Abell’s infamous scallion pancakes. There are even strawberries that grow twice a season, to the delight of the park’s pastry staff.
Chef Abell garners a lot of creative inspiration and culinary satisfaction from the rooftop farm
Stacy Buchanan
We were lucky enough to visit Fenway on one of the biweekly days when the folks from Green City Growers work on the farm. A few farmers picked the day’s impressive haul, which included 30 pounds of kale, 20 pounds of Swiss chard, and 20 pounds of scallions, as well as heirloom tomatoes, Italian and Oriental eggplant, chives, thyme, mint, sorrel, and parsley.
Heirloom tomatoes growing in milk crates
Stacy Buchanan
They were also planting new mid-season crops of carrots and radishes. One of the farmers is Production Site Specialist Carissa Unger, who talked about the particularly good soil used here. “It’s the best soil I’ve ever worked with. It’s wet and fluffy.” The proprietary organic blend from the Vermont Compost Company was specifically chosen for its light weight, yet superior nutrient and moisture retention. The quality of the soil is one important reason why the farm can successfully grow large plants, such as heirloom tomatoes, in tiny 12x12-inch milk crates.
Production Site Specialist Carissa Unger turns the soil
Stacy Buchanan
This isn’t just another trendy undertaking by a high-profile organization. It’s real food that’s grown and served right at Fenway Park. That’s not to say that the posh location has no bearing on the success of the project. It’s obvious that the budget is plentiful and the maintenance top-notch. Not many projects of this scale go from concept to fruition in about 8 months, but that kind of dedication is exactly what’s making Fenway Park a leader in sustainability initiatives.
The drip irrigation system is the most efficient and sustainable style, distributing the water directly to the roots of the plants, avoiding waste through evaporation. The system also has weather sensors that deactivate the irrigation when it rains. Other sustainability benefits include improved building insulation, help with storm water runoff, and reduced pest-management needs. While the farm still has to contend with some flying pests, not a single four-legged digging creature has made its way up onto the roof, making it a bit easier for the farmers to protect and maintain the crops.
The drip irrigation system at the rooftop farm
Stacy Buchanan
The only unfulfilled wish the team has is even more space to grow a larger percentage of the produce consumed at the park. The obvious success of the project means some form of expansion isn’t out of the question. But for now, partnerships with local farms, such as Ward’s Berry Farm in Sharon, provide larger quantities and produce that can’t grow in milk crates.
And make no mistake, the term 'Green Monster' will continue to take on a whole new meaning in this unique corner of 'America’s Most Beloved Ballpark'. We encourage you to take a hike up to farm to see what’s on deck during your next Fenway visit.
The rooftop farm at Fenway
Stacy Buchanan
The Rise Of The Urban Rooftop
With space at a premium, cities are exploring new ways to make better use of their rooftops.
The rooftops of our cities are wowefully under-utilised, despite the constant-battle for land (Image credit: Shutterstock)
With space at a premium, cities are exploring new ways to make better use of their rooftops.
Our cities have never been denser, taller, or busier than they are now, and with that, comes the constant battle for land. Whether you’re a city dweller, developer, transport planner, or farmer, you’re forced to compete for dwindling amounts of available space. And with two-thirds of the world’s population predicted to live in cities by 2050, the stress on urban infrastructure looks set to outpace even the most carefully-laid plans. But if we look at aerial images of any city center, we can quickly spot plenty of unused space – the rooftops. Speaking to Scientific American, Steven Peck from a non-profit called Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, describes the roofscapes of our cities as “the last urban frontier – (representing) 15 to 35 % of the total land area.”
So what can we use this precious resource for? In a growing number of high-density cities, some of it is dedicated to recreation – everything from bars and pools, to soccer pitches and running tracks can now be found atop skyscrapers. Others host smog-eating roof tiles or questionable wind turbines, while in China, a large shopping mall has 25 villas on its roof. But when a rooftop offers access to sunlight, there are two more obvious candidates for its use – agriculture and solar power.
Green Cities
Green roofs have been growing in popularity for more than a decade, and in some cases, growing in scale too – atop a convention center in Manhattan sits the city’s largest, covering an area of 89,000 m2. Usually comprised of planted beds, or carpet-like tiles that encouraged the growth of low profile vegetation, green roofs can provide a habitat for birds and insects in an otherwise hostile environment. They also act as thermal insulation for the building, and reduce storm water runoff that can otherwise cause havoc in urban sewers.
Green roofs come with the added benefit of mitigating the dreaded urban heat island effect, whereby, as a result of heat-absorbing materials like asphalt and concrete, cities can be several degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside. In contrast, trees and green spaces can absorb shortwave radiation, and use it to evaporate water from their leaves – a kind of ‘double cooling’ effect. There are countless studies that back up this idea. One of the most interesting came from researchers at the University of Georgia. In 2015, they showed not only that ‘green’ cities are cool cities, but that networks of small urban green spaces, such as parks, gardens and green roofs, were more effective at reducing a city’s temperature than a singular park of the equivalent size.
In some European and US cities, councils now offer significant financial incentives to developers who install a green roof – in Hamburg, building owners can receive subsidies of 30–60% of its installation costs. And from 2020, green roofs will be considered compulsory for all new, large-scale builds in the city. (CONTINUED...)
uilding-intergrated PVs are growing in popularity. But are they always the best option? (Photo by Thomas Imo/Photothek via Getty Images)
As food security and urban nutrition creep ever-higher on the agenda for the United Nations, there’s also a worldwide movement of using green roofs for hyper-local food production. In regions with suitable climates, hundreds of different vegetables, fruits, herbs and salad leaves can be grown on rooftops. Beehives and chicken coops are also becoming commonplace amongst the high-rises. But not all rooftop farms are equal, as we’ll discuss.
Power Up
But first, what about solar power? With so many cities now divesting from fossil fuels, and the costs of solar panels dropping dramatically, photovoltaic (PV) systems have become the ‘go to’ option for generating distributed power in built-up areas. And, even with standard commercial panels, the energy gains are dramatic. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have estimated that rooftop PV systems could generate almost 40% of electricity demands nationwide. NREL also developed a very cool visualization tool called PVWatts to help people discover if solar panels would work for them. In 2012, Dutch researchers calculated that building-integrated photovoltaics could deliver 840 TWh of electricity – that’s more than a fifth of the total annual demand for all of the EU-27 countries.
In 2011, a fascinating map was published by the City University of New York. Assembled from images taken by a LIDAR-enabled (Light Detection and Ranging) aircraft, it showed that at the time, 66.4% of New York’s buildingshad roof space suitable for commercial photovoltaic systems. Furthermore, they estimated that, even with NYC’s changeable weather, rooftop installations could meet close to 14% of the city’s annual electricity consumption.
And cities have certainly taken note of this data – in many cases, making such installations compulsory, as in Sao Paulo, where Brazil’s Ministry of Cities announced that future low-income housing developments should include rooftop photovoltaics.
Which one to choose?
There’s no doubt that in both cases, a network of ‘productive rooftops’ could benefit the local community by supplying a portion of a necessary resource – either food or electricity – while also reducing their environmental burden. But is one better than the other? (CONTINUED...)
This was the question posed by researchers from MIT and the University of Lisbon in a recent paper in the journal Cities. Focusing on the rooftops of a mixed-use neighborhood in Lisbon, they carried out a Cost-Benefit Analysis for four scenarios – 1. Open-air rooftop farming, 2. Rooftop farming in low-tech greenhouses, 3. ‘Controlled environment agriculture’ (farming in high-tech greenhouses) or 4. Solar PV energy generation. Starting with existing data on everything from installation costs and resources used, to carbon footprint and yield, they modelled the impact that each installation would have on the local community over a period of 50 years.
The researchers took a footprint of one square meter of roofing, considered a population of 17,500 residents, and for the farms, looked only at a single crop – tomatoes. The fruit is not only incredibly popular in the Portuguese diet – with an average of 10.4 kg eaten per year, per person – there’s also a large body of data available on their growing requirements and yields. For solar power, they considered standard single-crystalline silicon PV modules, arranged on flat or pitched roofs. They also assumed that the PVs installation would act as part of the grid – in other words, though generated locally, the electricity would be distributed via existing infrastructure.
Urban farming might add value to a neighbourhood far beyond what had been previously assumed (Photo by John S Lander/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Here are a few highlights from their study:
The benefits of food production varied according to the supply chain, except for high-tech rooftop farms, which were predicted to be profitable regardless. Open-air and low-tech greenhouses were found to only profit when the crops are sold directly to consumers.
If the demand for tomatoes in Lisbon was to be met through rooftop farming, you’d require 1.89 square meters for organic field cultivation (#1), 0.37 m2 for soil-less cultivation in unconditioned greenhouses (#2), or 0.15 m2 for controlled-environment agriculture (#3)
A rooftops farm could potentially create five times as many local jobs as a rooftop PV system, but would involve much higher operation and maintenance costs
The electricity yield for PVs installed on south-oriented unshaded rooftops was calculated to be approximately 300 kWh/m2/year.
So, both options seem pretty good. But it’s when we look at the bigger picture that the differences start to show. I’ve written about the questionable profitability of urban farming in the past, but that was only ever as measured on individual farmers, which – I say, with the benefit of hindsight – doesn’t make all that much sense in the context of a city.
This study, however, takes a broader, and much more sensible view – it looks at rooftop installations as part of an interconnected network. And it’s which measures the overall value – in terms of economics and the environment – to both the building owner, and the community around it. And by looking at it that way, they concluded that for Lisbon, the use of rooftops for food production could yield significantly higher local value than solar PV energy generation or standard green roofs. Of course, this is very site-specific – in another city, you might come to exactly the opposite conclusion, but that’s kind of the point. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to make cities more sustainable, and anyone who tells you otherwise is massively over-simplifying a complex issue.
There are lots of things that will help anywhere – e.g. moving from private cars to mass transit, making renewable energy the default option, being smarter with how we use water, reducing our reliance on concrete, minimizing our waste footprint, and reserving single-use plastics for very, very specific applications. But when it comes to ‘other’ questions, like should we use our rooftops for energy generation or farming, the answers are a lot less black-and-white. By adopting research like the study I’ve featured here, we can get much closer to making the right decision for our specific circumstances. The authors said that their study “…aims to provide decision-makers with a basis for systematic and integrated comparison of these productive uses of rooftops.” Now, all I hope is that some of those decision makers start using it.
5 Urban Farms Around The U.S. Changing Their Communities For The Better
In abandoned lots, in parks, on rooftops, and even in hospitals, urban farming is thriving.
BY KOTY NEELIS
In abandoned lots, in parks, on rooftops, and even in hospitals, urban farming is thriving. As more people want to know where their food comes from, community leaders across the country are seeking creative ways to grow fresh produce for residents in their city. But urban agricultural does more than just provide access to locally grown food — it boosts economic growth, lowers carbon emissions, and tackles issues surrounding environmental degradation, public health, poverty, and more by giving people greater control over the food system.
From quarter-acre farms run by elementary students to green roof gardens feeding thousands, here are a few urban farming projects aiming to make their community a better place.
1. Detroit Dirt
Detroit Dirt's mission is to create a zero-waste mindset throughout communities and drive forward a low-carbon economy. It's a compost company that helps complete the “circle of life” in food production by regenerating waste into resources. Pashon Murray, the leader behind the composting revolution in Detroit, is diverting tens of thousands of tons of food waste a year away from landfills and into a closed-loop composting system Murray built entirely from the ground up.
2. Boston Medical Center
As more hospitals move towards growing their own food for their patients and the community, one New England hospital has become a leader in this movement by placing a farm right on the hospital's rooftop. Boston Medical Center is not only the largest rooftop farm in Boston, but it's also first hospital-based rooftop farm in Massachusetts. The 7,000 square foot farm grows more than 25 crops and aims to generate 15,000 pounds of food every season, along with a couple of beehives to produce honey.
3. Ohio City Farm
Located in Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio City Farm is one of the largest contiguous urban farms in the United States. With over six acres, the farm aims to provide fresh, local, and healthy food to Cleveland’s underserved residents, while also boosting the local food economy and teaching the community about healthy eating. It's also home to Refugee Response, an employment training program that helps the city’s newest immigrants acquire the needed skills to succeed in their new communities by growing and selling organically farmed fresh produce
4. SAVOR…Chicago
Located on top of McCormick Place (the largest convention center in North America), this roof top farm is the largest soil-based rooftop farm in the Midwest, according to the Chicago Botanic Garden, which maintains the farm through its Windy City Harvest program. SAVOR serves about 3 million people a year at McCormick Place and has been recognized for its sustainability leadership and innovation including Green Seal Certification and International APEX certification in sustainability.
5. Acta Non Verba
Located in Oakland, CA, Acta Non Verba is a youth urban farm that's planned, planted, harvested, and sold by local elementary and middle school-aged kids. Founded and led mainly by women of color from the surrounding neighborhood and larger community, the quarter-acre nonprofit farm aims to challenge oppressive dynamics and environment with urban farming. ANV designs their monthly farm days, camps, and after-school program, so that young children have the opportunity to experience nature in a safe and welcoming green space, learning, creating, and accessing healthy, nature-based experiences that will empower them.
Now In Fourth Year, Fenway Farms Continues To Exemplify Rooftop Garden Trend
August 29, 2018
The Boston Red Sox are in their fourth year of sustainably growing their own organic produce in Fenway Farms.
The 5,000-square-foot rooftop garden sits on top of the Red Sox front offices. The 4,000-plus pounds of produce grown there annually includes carrots, lettuce, mint, eggplants, potatoes, and rosemary. The produce is then used by vendors within the park and by the EMC Club chefs to create meals for Red Sox fans.
Fenway Farms is just one in a recent trend to create rooftop green space in urban areas, with Boston Medical Center also creating a rooftop farm in Boston. The rooftop farms reduce air, heat, and water pollution output, on top of creating sustainable locally sourced food.
Rooftop farms not only benefit people who eat the produce grown there, but it improves the air quality surrounding them. Since the food is grown on-site, it keeps the air cleaner as no one has to drive the produce to the park from outside the city. The plants also filter the air, reducing the CO2 in the air around the garden.
Since the rooftop farm provides insulation for the buildings, they save money on heating and A/C. The farm also helps to moderate the heat output of Fenway Park since the plants absorb and insulate some of the heat generated inside. So, the rooftop farms are not only environmentally sustainable but also economically sustainable.
Entercom's 1Thing Sustainability Initiative promotes positive environmental practices and living. We know that if everyone did just 1Thing to improve the environment every day, our world would be a better place to live in for generations to come.
TAGS: 1Thing Fenway Park Boston Red Sox
As Indian Cities Grow Congested, The Only Space Left For Gardens Is Up – On Rooftops
Mumbai resident Medha Shringarpure is a dental surgeon and amateur gardener. She started growing herbs on the window sill of her flat in Mazgaon in 2012. As her passion for gardening grew, along with the number of plants on her sill, she realized she needed a bigger garden.
Rooftop gardening is becoming increasingly popular across Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai.
AR Shivakumar, principal officer for rainwater harvesting, Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology, waters plants on the rooftop garden of his house in Bengaluru. | Manjunath Kiran/AFP
September 1, 2018
Mumbai resident Medha Shringarpure is a dental surgeon and amateur gardener. She started growing herbs on the window sill of her flat in Mazgaon in 2012. As her passion for gardening grew, along with the number of plants on her sill, she realised she needed a bigger garden. Given the space crunch often witnessed in the apartment complexes of Mumbai, her only option was to move up – to the rooftop of her building.
Today, the rooftop garden in her five-storeyed apartment is thriving: she grows figs, grapes, papayas, pineapples, pomegranates, seasonal vegetables such as okra and aubergine, sweet potatoes and a variety of leafy greens. The daily harvest is shared with the building’s residents. There is also a small butterfly patch for children and a variety of seasonal flowers blossom on creepers and shrubs.
Shringarpure is one among many who are successfully growing rooftop gardens. As urbanization replaces bungalows with multi-storeyed high-rises, the space for gardens has been taken over by car parks. The plants that do grow in some of the abbreviated green spaces are largely etiolated. This is due to a lack of sunshine and fresh air as these plants often stand in the shadows of tall neighboring buildings. It is only natural then for open rooftops in cities where summer temperatures do not cross a scorching 40 degrees to serve as healthy, alternative – if somewhat challenging – spaces to grow a garden.
A rooftop garden on a building across the street from the International Covention Centre in Durban. Photo credit: Rogan Ward/Reuters
Rooftop gardening started becoming fashionable in crowded urbanscapes such as New York more than a decade ago, as an expression in sustainability. While different cities need to adapt their gardening efforts according to their weather, this trend caught on globally, prompted in part by the fear of pesticides in commercially-grown produce. Some of the obvious advantages of having such gardens in India include the cooling of the rooftop and the house below, encouraging practices such as composting and rainwater harvesting, and of course the luxury of enjoying a green space in congested cities.
Spread in India
One of the Indian cities where the rooftop gardening movement is thriving is Bengaluru. The largely moderate temperatures allow such gardens to grow all year long. There are also regular workshops conducted in the city extolling its benefits.
Rooftop gardens in the National Capital Region are also growing in number. But these gardens do not flourish during the summers. Even with shaded awnings, the temperatures are too high in the months of May and June to allow a garden to thrive. This is further exacerbated by the problem of water shortage. Any available water in the overhead tanks is often too hot to use. One of the few plants that do grow well in large cement tubs, despite the heat, are water lilies. Chrysanthemum cuttings are planted in the monsoon, and the rooftops in winter are bright with garden mums and vegetables such as cherry tomatoes and salad greens, which require minimal effort to grow.
Produce from Medha Shringarpure's rooftop garden in Mumbai. Photo credit: Medha Shringarpure.
The spread of rooftop gardens in both Bengaluru and the National Capital Region is mostly restricted to private homes. One of the challenges with such gardens in housing societies is that unlike private homes, the rooftop of an apartment building is a common space, and it is not always easy to get everyone on board. Residents on the floor immediately below the roof are often worried about seepage, a commonly experienced problem. Getting the rooftop professionally waterproofed is therefore a must.
In Mumbai the rooftops sometimes have a mosaic of broken china tiles which leaves them well protected for the most part against seepage. In areas in the National Capital Region, the roofing is usually mud phuska, a type of insulating medium, with brick tiles. Here it is essential to use a good waterproofing agent as the final pointing agent for the tile layer. For rooftop lawns, a bottom layer of sturdy tarpaulin is recommended. Drainage of planters is very important and placing the planters on brick steps is also a good idea.
While growing leafy salad greens and seasonal potted flowers on the rooftop or terrace garden is simple enough, growing trees requires a lot more care, especially with the soil used. The soil must be very lightweight yet nutritious and not get water-logged. Hence a porous addition to improve drainage is essential.
Seasonal organic vegetables that Shringarpure in her garden. Photo credit: Medha Shringarpure
Shringarpure has planted perennial fruit trees in hardy plastic drums (100 litre capacity) and the largest available grow bags. The trees on her rooftop(4500 sq feet approx) include sapota, guava, custard apple, Barbados cherry, ramphal (Bullock’s Heart), orange, sweet lime, star fruit, soursop, Indian gooseberry (dwarf amla), bananas, jamrul, purple jamun, dragon fruit, mango, lychee, ber (Indian jujube), rambutan, cashew and passion fruit. “Fruit trees like moringa, breadfruit and coconut palm are doing well too,” Shringarpure said.
Seasonal vegetables are planted on beds which are three feet by four feet with a depth of three feet, raised at a four-brick height. These beds are made of wooden planks lined with plastic roofing sheets. The vegetables include beans, sponge gourd, ridge gourds, snake gourd, bitter gourd and bottle gourd. Gourds can also be grown in lightweight planters such as apple crates (one feet by one feet and depth of two feet), as can curry leaves.
“Sweet potatoes, turmeric and ginger are grown in separate grow bags which are deep enough to cater for tubers,” Shringarpure said. “The greens include Malabar spinach, Brazilian spinach, Thai water spinach, amaranthus and roselle, among others. Aromatic herbs such as sweet basil, tulsi, mint, Indian borage, mustard, sesame and fennel are interspersed with vegetables in the bed, which helps in pollination [and act as] pest detractors.” Flowers such as bougainvillea, jasmine, gardenias, clematis, Rangoon creeper, hibiscus, rose, allamanda, oleander and plumerias are grown in planters. Her butterfly garden has clitoria, parijaat, adeniums, lantanas, vincas and honey suckle.
Fruiting trees grown in large plastic drums. Photo credit: Medha Shringarpure.
Since the soil must be lightweight so as not to overload rooftops, the potting mixture must be frequently enriched with rich, but not clayey, compost. This is an important aspect of such gardens, as most are organic, and Shringarpure makes her own compost. She collects the wet kitchen waste – usually vegetable and fruit peels, tea and coffee grounds and egg shells – from her entire building. These are layered in a big plastic drum in which she has bored holes all around for aeration. The wet waste is alternated with dry waste (dried leaves from the terrace garden, coco peat or a handful of red soil).
This container is raised on bricks and a vessel is kept under to catch the fluid that leaches as the waste decomposes. After about 20 days the drum is given a shake and the accumulated fluid is diluted with water and used as manure for plants. It takes about 45-50 days for the waste to decompose, after which it is transferred to heavy plastic sacks. It is left for another month and then utilised as manure for the plants.
Vines and gourds provide dappled shade on the rooftop. Photo credit: Medha Shringarpure.
Organic gardens do struggle to control pests, though rooftop ones suffer less than the ones at ground level. Some common deterrents include using chilly and garlic decoctions, neem oil infused with common detergent and marigold petals.
Shringarpure, who started gardening in part to cope with the loss of a loved one, describes her garden as “an expression of earth’s poetry”. “It has woken me to the wonders of creation,” she said, “all that dies like a fragile butterfly is reborn and death is only the beginning of a new dawn.”
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Council Members Rafael Espinal, Donovan Richards, Steve Levin Launch Campaign to Green New York City Roofs
The legislators introduced a package of legislation related to requiring green roof systems, wind turbines or solar power on certain buildings.
Brooklyn - Council Members Rafael Espinal, Donovan Richards and Steve Levin today formally introduced a package of legislation aimed at expanding green roofs in New York City. The bills represent a concerted legislative effort to combat climate change and provide more sorely-needed green space in New York City.
A green roof is a roof that is partially or completely covered with plants and a growing medium on top of a waterproof membrane. Multiple studies have found that green roofs offer a variety of benefits for the environment. They reduce urban heat island effect by cooling down the surrounding atmosphere. They also mitigate stormwater runoff, which decreases water pollution. In some cases, green roofs can also be used for urban farming to provide more healthy, locally grown foods and jobs to our neighborhoods.
Building owners and homeowners would also benefit from green roofs. The added insulation they provide can cut cooling and heating bills of the building's upper floors. In addition, they provide a new amenity for residents that can increase property values.
“The time to fight climate change is now,” said NYC Council Member Rafael Espinal. “By greening every single rooftop in New York City, we will make a strong commitment to doing our part to protect the planet. In the most famous landscape in the world, New York City could turn our concrete jungle into a green oasis."
“For one of the greatest tools in the fight against climate change we need to look upwards,” said Council Member Stephen Levin. “Green roofs are an incredible innovation that reduce ambient temperatures, save energy, and reduce the strain on our sewer system, thereby preventing waste from being dumped into our waterways. Solar panels will also be crucial to jumpstarting our renewable energy generation right here at home. This set of legislation demonstrates a serious commitment to protecting our environment, and I applaud Council Members Espinal and Richards for their leadership on this issue.”
“New York City must be leveraging every opportunity possible to reduce our carbon footprint and our rooftops represent prime real estate for that very goal,” said Council Member Donovan Richards. “Installing solar panels or green roofs on every roof possible would be a major boost for our environment, long term quality jobs, and even save businesses and property owners thousands of dollars in energy costs. I’d like to thank Council Members Espinal and Levin for their partnership on this package of legislation.”
Legislation sponsored by Council Member Rafael Espinal, would require that the roofs of certain buildings cover all available space with a green roof system, solar panels, small wind turbines, or a combination of all three.
Legislation also sponsored by Council Member Espinal, would require the Office of Alternative Energy to provide information about green roofs on their website.
Legislation sponsored by Council Member Donovan Richards, would require that the roofs of certain new buildings be partially covered in plants or solar panels.
Legislation sponsored by Council Member Stephen Levin, would require that the roofs of city- owned buildings be partially covered in source control measures, including green roof or blue roof systems, or a combination of both.
“As the Executive Director of the New York City Community Garden Coalition and as a member of the People's Climate March NY I applaud these initiatives. Putting green infrastructure and creating green space on buildings is another step towards making New York City a leader in climate mitigation. There is more we can do such as making community gardens permanent and creating more green open space. These three bills begin the commitment to make climate action a part of city policy and dialogue,” said Aziz Dehkan, Executive Director, New York City Community Garden Coalition.
"Stormwater Infrastructure Matters (SWIM) Coalition enthusiastically supports the installation of more green roofs across the City. Green roofs help reduce energy demand in buildings, reduce Urban Heat Island effect, purify the air, create habitat, and capture and manage the stormwater runoff that currently overloads our sewer system causing sewage overflows into our waterways," said Julie Welch, Program Manager at the Stormwater Infrastructure Matters Coalition.
"With this legislation New York City joins a growing family of cities that are using rooftops to manage stormwater, generate clean energy, reduce the urban heat island, provide green jobs and generate much needed recreational spaces," said Steven W. Peck, GRP, Founder and President of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, the green roof and wall industry association which is having its annual conference, www.CitiesAlive.org, in New York from September 24-28, 2018.
“When we install a green roof, we see immediate social, economic, and environmental benefits that can truly transform a building. From the nourishing food our farm grows for its local community, to the native plants providing habitat for pollinators and people alike on the green
roofs we've built across the city, we are excited that Council Members Espinal, Levin, and
Richards are in advocating for the implementation of green roofs as a means to a more livable and resilient New York City,” said Anastasia Plakias, the founder of Brooklyn Grange, a rooftop farm located in Greenpoint.
Produce Goes From Rooftop Farm To Table At Uncommon Ground
JULY 22, 2018, BY ANDREA DARLAS
CHICAGO — Above Uncommon Ground, a 2,500-square-foot rooftop farm allows the restaurant to harvest hundreds of pounds of organic fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. There are also a pair of beehives that produce 40-50 pounds of honey, and other things used to make specialty craft beers.
The restaurant plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the rooftop farm with community events and harvesting classes all summer long.
WGN's Andrea Darlas has more.
Vancouver To Develop Green Roof Policy
By AINSLIE CRUICKSHANK StarMetro Vancouver
July 25, 2018
VANCOUVER—The City of Vancouver is moving forward with the development of a green roof policy that could require some new buildings to include rooftop grasses or gardens.
On Thursday evening council voted in support of a motion put forward by Councillor Adriane Carr that noted several benefits of green roofs.
The living roof on the Cactus Club restaurant in Vancouver's Coal Harbour. (PERRIN GRAUER / STAR METRO VANCOUVER)
Green roofs — roofs that are partially or entirely covered by vegetation — can absorb rain, thereby helping to reduce combined sewage overflows. They can also absorb greenhouse gasses, helping to mitigate climate change and clean the air of pollutants.
Carr amended her initial motion Wednesday to clarify that staff should develop a green roof policy in consultation with industry and the community after the Urban Development Institute raised concerns that developers had not been consulted.
In a letter to council the institute, which represents 850 members in the real estate development and planning industry, cited concerns about industry capacity given other green building initiatives already in place and added costs to construction.
On Wednesday, Carr clarified that “the process hasn’t started, this is the beginning of the process” and any policies would be developed in consultation with industry.
Ron Schweiger, the principal of Architek who has extensive experience with green roofs spoke before the standing committee considering the motion.
“Green roofs are more than just sedum and grass,” he said.
While the roofs may carry an added expense to install, those costs are easily recouped, he said, adding that in his opinion Vancouver can’t afford not to require green roofs.
Particularly relevant during Vancouver’s current heat wave, he added green roofs can help mitigate the effect of urban “heat islands.”
Concerns were raised however about making green roofs mandatory. City staff said their analysis would examine the need for possible exemptions and costs.
Ainslie Cruickshank is a Vancouver-based reporter covering the environment. Follow her on Twitter: @ainscruickshank
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The Quirky Plan To Grow Fruit And Vegetables On Manchester City Centre Rooftops - Using Live Fish
Manchester’s city office blocks and apartment towers are powering a regional economy like no other. That much is obvious. But could they also be growing salads?
Experiments have revealed that city centre buildings could be turned into market gardens producing up to 180 million packs of salad a year
By David Thame 21 JUL 2018
Dr Andrew Jenkins and inset, the garden on the rooftop of Irwell House, Salford
Manchester’s city office blocks and apartment towers are powering a regional economy like no other. That much is obvious. But could they also be growing salads?
Experiments by a Belfast-based academic and a local property developer have revealed that city centre buildings could be turned into a market garden producing up to 180 million packs of salad a year.
Crops harvested could include lettuces, Swiss chard, chillies, courgettes and even strawberries.
The astonishing research suggests that if the walls of buildings are adapted, and roofs covered in polytunnels, individual buildings could produce tens of thousands of crops each year using soilless agriculture systems.
The high-level market gardens would rely on aquaponics – using live fish to provide nutrients to help plants grow – and hydroponics, which relies on water alone.
The high-level market gardens would rely on aquaponics – using live fish to provide proteins to help plants grow
Dr. Andrew Jenkins, now a post-doctoral research fellow at Queen's University Belfast, first worked on the idea in partnership with designers and BDP and local developer Urban Splash as far back as 2013.
The project at Irwell House, Blackfriars, Salford, demonstrated that older buildings could take the weight of rows of fish tanks, pumping and filtration systems.
They grew crops that needed more serious root systems against the windows, to give them more light, and put the heavier fishtanks on the building’s structural steel work.
The result was the potential to grow 16,000 vegetable servings a year from a single office block. The cost of the installation was just £28,000 – but a full commercial growing system would be considerably more expensive.
Dr Jenkins explains: “We extrapolated the data from Irwell House across the entire city centre’s stock of buildings – which meant designing a 3D model of the city so we could see what their surface area was, and which areas fell into shade which made them unsuitable for growing.
Crops harvested could include lettuces, Swiss chard, chillies, courgettes and even strawberries
“What we discovered is that the total surface area of the city’s big buildings is 445 hectares (1,100 acres) – of which 360 hectares (890 acres) fulfills the basic requirements for growing things.
"So there’s about 360 hectares (890 acres) of growing space within the realms of possibility, and the roof space is easier to use that the vertical wall space, because installing the tanks and coverings is more low-tech.”
However, the project has had to adapt to Manchester’s somewhat variable weather. Crop tanks on the roof need protection from wind and cold weather – meaning structures like polytunnels.
Dr. Andrew Jenkins
The fish used in aquaponics also need to be hardy: at first they used quick growing Red Nile Tilapia – but native species like the common carp might be happier in the winter, and would not need heated tanks.
If there were four harvests a year Manchester could produce up to 180 million fruit and vegetable servings from its roofs and walls.
Could it really work? Dr. Jenkins says it certainly could.
"We’re having conversations about how you do the farming,” he says.
“It could be automated, which reduces cost and increases productivity – or maybe you can create jobs – or a mix of the two. But it is certainly true that people can’t be replaced in animal and plant husbandry and it could mean up to 8,400 new jobs.”
The project at Irwell House, Blackfriars, Salford
Landlords will be glad to know that if the idea catches on they will not need to make very expensive changes to their buildings. “The weight of the tanks is not carried on the floors, but on the structural steelwork,” Dr Jenkins says.
However useful market gardening on office blocks may be, Dr Jenkins cautions that it is no substitute for sorting out the U.K.’s long-term food security.
“We are hitting the hypothetical limits of agriculture in the UK, which means we are pushing our soils as hard as they can go.
"People hear of urban agriculture of the kind I’ve been investigating, and believe it could be a solution.
"If we used the external surfaces of urban buildings we could only deliver about 1.5% of the UK’s food needs. That's enough for about one million people per year, which is small in the grand scheme of things but could ultimately transform local economies and job creation in many cities in the future."
Manchester Evening News
Brooklyn Pols Push For Green Rooftops
City Councilmember Rafael Espinal introduced a bill on Wednesday that would require new commercial buildings across the city to install green rooftops.
Brooklyn Pols Push For Green Rooftops
By Liliana Bernal
Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Green rooftop on VICE Media’s headquarters. Eagle photos by Lilian Bernal
City Councilmember Rafael Espinal introduced a bill on Wednesday that would require new commercial buildings across the city to install green rooftops.
“It's important that now more than ever, when we have a federal government that’s rolling back all of these environmental policies, that cities as big as New York are being aggressive ... by pushing legislation that's gonna ensure that our city is greener and playing a major role in the fight against climate change,” Espinal said at a press conference hosted on the VICE Media building’s green rooftop.
The bill sponsored by Espinal would require roofs of new commercial buildings to be covered with plants on top of a waterproof membrane, solar panels, small wind turbines or a combination of all three. The legislation would also apply to existing buildings undergoing major renovations on their rooftops.
“In New York City today, only 0.15 percent of our rooftops are green,” Espinal added. “That puts us way behind in the conversation.”
Councilmembers Stephen Levin of Brooklyn and Donovan Richards of Queens also introduced two separate bills last session that would require new buildings and city-owned buildings to partially cover their roofs with plants or solar panels.
Green roofs benefit the environment by creating urban hubs for species, reducing the temperature of buildings, saving stormwater runoff that is absorbed by the soil and reducing energy consumption with the help of the plants on the roof.
From left: Julie Welch, Aziz Dehkan, Councilmember Rafael Espinal, Anastasia Plakias and Lisa Bloodgood.
Developers and homeowners could also reduce energy costs and external noise and increase property value.
“Green roofs contribute very little to the overall cost of a project while making buildings more valuable to developers and building owners,” said Steven W. Peck, founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, an association that supports green roofs and walls across North America.
If legislation is passed, New York would join other major cities that require green rooftops by law, including Toronto, San Francisco, Berlin, London, Paris, Copenhague, Tokyo, Denver and Portland, Oregon.
“We witness transformations every day in the rooftops that we convert to incredible green, productive spaces,” said Anastasia Plakias, founder of Brooklyn Grange, a rooftop located in Greenpoint. “We witness transitions from them being hot, inhospitable environments that a pigeon won't even land on to these incredible supportive landscapes that our migratory and native pollinators can enjoy and that our community can enjoy as well.”
July 19, 2018 - 8:44pm
These Joburg Offices Now Have Farms Inside Them — And Workers Get To Harvest Lunch
Timothy Rangongo, Business Insider SA
Jul 27, 2018
Office farms are gaining traction in SA, with more businesses signing up for veggie gardens.
- One service provider of commercial gardens has installed over 250 business gardens.
- These edible gardens are not only aesthetically pleasing but are saving some establishments money, and reducing employees' stress by exposing them to nature.
Some South African office workers are picking their own herbs and vegetables for lunch, without ever leaving the office.
An organic salad can be quickly put together from lettuce, garlic, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, and bell peppers for instance, and topped with lemon juice — all picked from 'office farms' as the installations are colloquially known.
Vertical gardens in SA offices with hardware and irrigation supplied by Vicinity. (Photos: Vicinity)
Edible business gardens are also taking over office rooftops, balconies and walls.
Urban Harvest, a company that sets up and maintains edible gardens, says it has already created 250 such gardens, and has many more potential customers thinking about urban farms.
Edible business gardens set up by Urban Harvest. (Photo: Urban Harvest)
Vicinity, a company that manufactures the structures for such gardens, confirms the trend.
Most of their installations are corporate-oriented. Vicinity just signed on one of the Radisson's Cape Town hotels to install a rooftop garden with edible plants.
Google South Africa's office has one such small vegetable garden on its rooftop, offering a quiet, environmentally-friendly retreat with various edible plants.
Google South Africa's rooftop garden provides on-site access to fresh herbs and vegetables. (Photos: Timothy Rangongo, Business Insider SA & @MzansiGirl, Twitter)
"A business is seen as more cutting edge and credible if it includes green practices or characteristics, such as offsetting its carbon footprint, in its work," says MD of Urban Harvest, Ben Getz.
Obtaining a favourable green-star rating is also an incentive to install an edible garden, Urban manager Timothy Kachiri tells Business Insider South Africa.
Payroll company Sage's building in the new Menlyn Maine development – which promises "to become Africa's first green city" – sports a 4-star green-star rating and features a functioning vegetable garden on the roof that provides the canteen with fresh herbs and veggies.
Sage VIP's new building in Pretoria sports a large rooftop vegetable garden. (Photos: Menlyn Maine)
Google South Africa also directs its fresh produce in-house restaurant Gogo's Shebeen.
Google SA's cool canteen, Gogo's shebeen, makes use of veggies harvested from their rooftop garden. (Photos: @Karabo_Mokgoko, Twitter)
According to a 2015 Human Spaces report, people who work in environments with natural elements report a 15% higher level of well-being, a 6% higher level of productivity, and a 15% higher level of creativity than those who work in environments devoid of nature.
Hotels and restaurants are also increasingly producing right on site.
The Westin hotel's rooftop garden in Cape Town, installed by Vertical Veg. (Photos: Vertical Veg)
A vegetable garden allows The Westin's chefs in Cape Town access to fresh, organically-grown herbs and vegetables for use in dishes promoted as having a minimal carbon footprint.
Dishes prepared by the Westin's chefs, using edible plants from the hotel's garden. (Photos: Vertical Veg)
Manager of The Culinary Table restaurant in Johannesburg, Warren Tshuma, says its garden is tied to a philosophy of "honest garden-to-table cuisine, made from scratch."
The Culinary Table's large kitchen garden and meals prepared from edible plants harvested from the garden. (Photos: Culinary Table)
The Culinary Table also saves money by sourcing ingredients from its own garden, according to Tshuma.
It takes about three days on average to install a big business garden or one for a small office space. Vertical gardens take about a day and half to erect, says Kachiri.
Canadian Online Food Supplier Grow Vegetables on Rooftop With LED Lights of Current by GE
Lufa Farms, a Canadian food supplier based in Montreal, has collaborated with Hort Americas and Current by GE to install LED lights for maximizing the production efficiency of its hydroponic rooftop greenhouses.
Located in urban Montreal with long winter and limited sunlight and space, Lufa Farms has taken the challenge of growing food for local people in sustainable ways and with a modern approach. The company breeds more than 75 vegetables year-round in hydroponic rooftop greenhouses and delivers food directly to their customers through a subscription-based service. Lufa Farms had to increase its production to meet the needs of growing consumers and decided to introduce a new growing system.
(Image: Current by GE)
Current by GE, Hort Americas, and Lufa Farms worked together to develop a three-tier lighting system with the installation of roughly 430 GE Arize Lynk LED lights in a 650 square meters (7,000 square feet) space in the new greenhouse and facilitated seeding propagation. The solution helped Lufa Farms to increase the speed of seeding production by 15 percent as well as to scale the growth. Moreover, the Lufa team noticed greater consistency within each variety of vegetable, as they grew in optimized conditions during this pivotal period. All these benefits helped Lufa Farms to feed its over 10,000 customers and the founders of the company thus will consider to shift to LED lighting for more areas.
Lauren Rathmell, the co-founder of Lufa, said “The design we created means there’s a lot more uniformity across the board. At the same time, it’s quite unique that we have been able to grow many varieties at this volume—and at a faster rate.”
(Image: Current by GE)
Their success had attracted Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister to visit when the company launched the new greenhouse with a GE growing system.
- Keywords: horticulture lighting Current by GE
New York City Council Pushes Green Infrastructure At New Developments
The New York City Council plans to introduce a bill Wednesday mandating green roofs on certain new developments. Expect push-back from the real estate industry.
July 18, 2018
Bill would mandate rooftops be outfitted with gardens, solar panels or wind turbines
By Joe Anuta
The City Council plans to introduce a bill Wednesday mandating green roofs on certain new developments. Expect push-back from the real estate industry.
The legislation, sponsored by Brooklyn Councilmen Rafael Espinal Jr. and Stephen Levin, would require 100% of the rooftops on newly built or substantially renovated commercial or industrial buildings to be outfitted with some combination of green space, solar panels and wind turbines. The aim of the legislation is to save energy because buildings are responsible for three-quarters of carbon emission in the city.
"We have to look at the infrastructure improvements we can make here to ensure we're doing our part in reducing our carbon footprint and cooling our city down," Espinal told The New York Times.
But increasing construction costs and commandeering rooftop space that is increasingly used for amenities to lure commercial tenants are sure to provoke a confrontation with the development community.
The council has considered a number of bills recently that relate to urban wind power, which is far from the most viable way to make the city greener. Reducing consumption would have a much bigger impact, and wind power is most effective when harnessed at offshore farms.
Montreal, Canada Supermarket Offers Fresh Produce from Its Rooftop Garden
Montreal, Canada Supermarket Offers Fresh Produce from Its Rooftop Garden
July 13, 2018
By Photojournalist Global News
A worker harvests produce from a rooftop garden of an IGA supermarket in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent. Phil Carpenter/Global News
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You probably wouldn’t expect to find a farm on the roof of your local supermarket.
“People don’t believe that we can grow veggies on a rooftop,” laughs Carl Pichette, marketing vice-president for Sobeys Quebec.
But that’s exactly what an IGA supermarket in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent is doing. They have planted a 23,000-square foot rooftop garden that shoppers can spot from the parking lot. This is the garden’s third year of operation.
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“Consumers are looking for fresh ingredients,” Pichette explains, “but if you can grow your own vegetables, organic, on your rooftop, that makes it very strong for the consumer.”
“They start in the spring and grow 30 different kinds of fruit and vegetables that vary throughout the season. Like leafy greens — kale, parsley and chard, that like the cooler weather, as well as others that do better in the heat.
“So right now, what’s sorta coming in is the tomatoes,” Time Murphy tells Global News. He works for Ligne Verte, the company that runs the farm in partnership with the supermarket. “The eggplants are beautiful, the peppers will be not far behind, hot peppers, basil, strawberries.”
Customers can see the produce on a screen in the store and order what they want. While they wait, they can watch what’s happening in the garden via a live camera feed.
READ MORE: Organic farming in your backyard
“From there, you have a runner that comes and brings all the orders for the client directly in a box over here,” says Xavier Gomez who runs the kiosk where shoppers can place their order. It all happens within five minutes.
Pichette says 95 percent of what is grown is sold.
“It’s not more expensive to buy those organic products than other organic products that we have,” he says.
Murphy says one of the best sellers is a salad mix that they call their “spring mix.” We sell around 200 to 300 units in our little clamshells,” he says.
One shopper seems satisfied so far. Michel Saint-Georges says he started buying the vegetables last year because it makes sense ecologically.
“That’s something I speak to my friends about,” he says. “Actually, several of our friends have started to come here to take advantage of the roof products. “Yeah!”
Company officials say they want to continue to grow a variety of produce and are willing to try new things — even flowers.
© 2018 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
US: Boston Medical Center’s Rooftop Farm
Fresh produce for both patients and the community
US: Boston Medical Center’s Rooftop Farm
Boston Medical Center is going green. The building has a rooftop farm, supplying fresh fruits and vegetables to patients and the community. This is the first rooftop farm associated with a hospital in New England.
‘Farm’ manager Lindsay Allen: “BMC for a long time has had a mission that food is medicine. We grow for our on-site food pantry. We grow for our kitchen, which either goes to the cafeteria or onto the patient’s plate, and today we’re launching our first-ever farmers market inside the hospital, which will be for patients and for employees.”
Once the food is harvested, all they have to do is bring it across the street. The farm also harvests bees in hives that were painted by pediatric patients. The new addition helps educate patients and offers many opportunities and events for volunteers and children.
Source: whdh.com
Publication date: 7/2/2018
Dutch Rooftop Farm Declared Bankrupt
Dutch Rooftop Farm Declared Bankrupt
When being built it was the largest rooftop farm in Europe. Now the Dutch rooftop farm UF De Schilde has been declared bankrupt. The farm realized on top of an empty 1950s office block, hasn't been able to compete with the nearby Westland region.
It's 1200 m², fully decked out in double glazing, and the cultivation of lettuce, tomatoes, and microgreens in this greenhouse is combined with fish farming. That's how we started the article about the Dutch rooftop farm De Schilde when construction was finalized in 2016. The project was realized by collaboration between UrbanFarmers AG, a private investor and Stimuleringsfonds Volkshuisvesting (SVn: the Dutch Municipalities’ Housing Development Fund).
Back then, the plan was met with great skepticism: the yields of the project would not compete at all with the greenhouses in Westland, only a couple of kilometers nearby.
Greenhouse project
The rooftop farm was an expensive project: the greenhouse has been fully constructed with double glazing – and the inner layer is also layered glass. In order to withstand the wind, a profile was developed in which the glass is anchored with screws. Various glass pane sizes were used in order to distribute the pressure on the construction. The greenhouse itself is divided into two parts – one part for the visitors and a part for cultivation.
The critics have been proven right. Yesterday the impressive project has been declared bankrupt. While the Instagram posts still show how tomatoes, lettuce, and eggplants are growing, the webshop is without inventory and the phone of the company is not being answered. With the curator not being able to answer the phone yet the exact cause of the bankruptcy is still unknown, but it has been known in the industry that the company struggled with their crop and getting the needed price for the product.
Publication date: 7/4/2018
Author: Arlette Sijmonsma
Copyright: www.hortidaily.com