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Reap What They Sow At These Amazing Vancouver Hotel Rooftop Gardens
Farm to table dining helps to ensure that food is fresh and local. But what could be more local than sourcing your vegetables, salad leaves, fruits and herbs from right above your head?
Fiona Tapp Contributor
Farm to table dining helps to ensure that food is fresh and local. But what could be more local than sourcing your vegetables, salad leaves, fruits and herbs from right above your head?
These hotels have installed innovative gardens on their rooftop spaces and balconies which, when open to guests, provide a peaceful place to seek solace and relaxation.
In some cases they also provide a source of delicious and uber fresh produce to liven up meals and beverages right in the hotel restaurant.
These are the best rooftop gardens and green spaces in Vancouver and nearby.
Fairmont Waterfront, Vancouver
Rooftop Garden | FAIRMONT WATERFRONT VANCOUVER
The rooftop garden at the Fairmont Waterfront hotel in Vancouver is one of the best examples of this trend and is incredibly well utilized by the culinary team.
Located on the 3rd floor, the 2,100 square foot irrigated garden receives full sun and was one of the city's first green roofs. There are 11 beds growing over 60 varieties of herbs. As well as a selection of vegetables, fruits and edible blossoms, but the real showstopping element of this garden is the presence of bees.
Designated as a Certified Wildlife Friendly Habitat by the Canadian Wildlife Federation, the garden is home to a staggering 250,000 honey bees who produce over 200 pounds of honey annually. There's even a resident bee butler to cater to the hives every need.
Check out the observation hive which allows guests to see what those busy bees are up to!
The on-site ARC restaurant uses rosemary, lavender, basil, mint, bay leaves and sage from the garden as well as garlic, apples, rainbow chard, kale, leeks, tomatoes, lettuces, carrots, peppers, green onion, strawberries, and shallots in their delicious and innovative dishes.
Botanist, Fairmont Pacific Rim, Vancouver
Fairmont Pacific Rim | BOTANIST
At the Fairmont Pacific Rim, greenery, plants and flowers are used in a different way. Although not included in the menu at the restaurant, Botanist for culinary purposes, the living wall is used as decor and as a beautiful design aesthetic.
Enjoy the ambiance as you order from the cocktail lab where incredibly unique drinks are made including the Candy Cap Magic, which features mushroom rye, vermouth, spiced maple, and comes served on a bed of forest moss!
The Douglas, An Autograph Collection Hotel , Vancouver
The DOUGLAS | JEREMY SEGAL PHOTOGRAPHY
The Douglas, an autograph collection hotel and part of the huge Parq Vancouver complex features an enormous 30,000 square foot outdoor park on the sixth floor of the property. More than 200 native pines and 15,000 local plants grow here.
There's also a water feature and a bike path in this urban park, which feels miles away from the city below.
The eco-conscious Douglas hotel also promotes a "conserve together" program where a Douglas Fir tree is planted for every guest who opts out of the daily housekeeping service for two consecutive days.
Nita Lake Lodge, Whistler
Nita Lake Lodge Rooftop Garden | FIONA TAPP
Although not located in Vancouver, the sumptuous Nita Lake Lodge is a nearby retreat to get away from the hubbub of busy city life.
Located in charming Whistler village, just an hour and 40 minutes from town. Whistler is home to two mountains, that can be explored all year long.
The Nita Lake Lodge has a pretty rooftop garden that is put to very good use by the onsite restaurants.
Expect to find herbs, fruits and vegetables from the garden used across the property's three restaurants; Aura, Cure Lounge and Patio and Fix cafe. Try the rhubarb Collins, it's delicious!
Lead Photo: Rooftop Garden | . FAIRMONT WATERFRONT VANCOUVER
The Complete Guide To Building A Rooftop Garden
Gardening can be a great way to relax and free your mind from the numbing pressures of The Screen
You Don't Have To Have A Yard To Get Things Growing.
By Ryan Boysen | August 4, 2019
You can get your hands dirty no matter where you live.Julian Hochgesang via Unsplash
Before man was, gardening waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.
Ok fine, Cormac McCarthy was actually talking about war when he wrote that, but if you ask me, it still holds true for gardening.
Along with mastering fire, the purposeful cultivation of plants is widely considered to be one of the technological leaps that set humans on the path to complex civilization, for better or for worse. Speaking as a city dweller and inhabitant of the current iteration of said complex civilization, we need gardening now, more than ever, to smooth out some of the rougher edges of this weird world we’ve built for ourselves.
Gardening can be a great way to relax and free your mind from the numbing pressures of The Screen. Futzing around with plants in the sun helps us reconnect with the glories of the natural world that we've become increasingly isolated from. And, as this bizarrely dark listicle puts it, gardening "reminds us of the cycle of life," and thus helps us "come to terms with that most universal of anxieties: death."
But hey, let’s not worry about that just yet. The tall, skinny guy with the scythe and black robes comes for us all, but until he rings the buzzer, let’s squeeze all the joy we can out of the here and now.
Which brings us back to gardening, and how to get into it.
For those of us who live in the suburbs or, even better, the country, the process is easy: go outside and plant some seeds in the ground, then watch them grow. For those of us living in a city, it’s a bit more complicated.
But fear not. I have toiled for countless hours and spent thousands of dollars to thread that needle, so you don’t have to. After four years of banging my head against the wall in an attempt to garden despite living in a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, New York, I have finally figured out a design that is relatively simple, works well, and, most importantly, is extremely low-maintenance once it’s set up.
The author with his completed (and thriving) rooftop garden.Courtesy of Ryan Boysen
As long as you have rooftop access and a relatively chill landlord, there’s an excellent chance you can learn from my mistakes and build yourself a rooftop garden. It should only cost you a few hundred bucks and a weekend or two of your time—even less if you’ve already got spare materials lying around and are capable of getting out of bed before 1 p.m. on the weekend.
It's really just three things
There are an endless variety of ways to garden on a roof, but my setup consists of three components intended to address what I consider to be the three main problems confronting the would-be rooftop gardener.
A PVC structure wrapped in bamboo fencing to protect the plants from wind, which can be brutal on a roof.
Self-watering containers to reduce the amount of time spent lugging water up to the roof and to ensure that, if you don't do so for a few days, the plants won't suffer.
A homemade soil mixture to encourage a bountiful harvest by providing the plants with primo dirt that won't require constant fertilizing.
If you’re just starting out and all that seems overwhelming, you can halve the time required to put this together by foregoing the custom soil mix and simply adding organic fertilizers to store-bought potting soil (only bags marked as “potting soil,” no “in-ground” or “raised bed” stuff, as it’s much heavier and will not distribute water properly). This will work fine, but not as well as mixing it up from scratch.
It should go without saying, but definitely ask your landlord for permission before building a rooftop garden, and make sure the roof in question has the structural integrity necessary to support one. Most apartment building roofs shouldn’t have a problem supporting at least a small garden, but you do need to scope it out first. If in doubt, ask your landlord.
Build the structure
This part can seem intimidating, but it’s actually fairly straightforward, as long as you think ahead.
First, decide where you want your garden to go. Measure the area, and plan the size of your structure accordingly.
Mine, for example, is 12 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 8 feet tall. Your length and width may vary, but I recommend a simple square or rectangle with 8-foot-tall sides to keep the wind from roughing up your plants. You’ll also want to leave an opening on one side so you can get in and out.
Sketch a rudimentary blueprint (no need to get fancy with this), then figure out how much PVC pipe and bamboo fencing you’ll need. Remember that you won’t require horizontal pieces of pipe on the interior—you’ll need space to walk around—and that you’ll keep the entryway clear of fencing.
Seriously, you don't need to be a good artist to sketch a blueprint. Ryan Boysen
What you'll need:
The materials listed below are standardized for one 4-by-4-by-8-foot section of garden space, which is the basic building block of my design. As you add square footage, you’ll need slightly fewer pieces for each additional section, as they will share poles and joints.
Materials (for one 4-by-4-by-8-foot block of garden space)
18 or so 4-foot-long, 3/4-inch-thick PVC poles (about 12 for each additional block)
12 PVC pipe joints (your combination of tee joints, 3-way connectors, 4-way connectors, and 5-way connectors will vary depending on the size of your structure)
12 feet of bamboo fencing (4 feet for each additional edge block)
A can of PVC cement
A roll of string (or about 100 zip ties)
Tools
Hacksaw (or PVC pipe cutter)
Knife (or scissors)
Permanent marker
Once you’ve got your tools and materials, measure the pipe to your desired length, mark it, cut it, and start connecting. It’s OK to be a little confused during this step, but once you put a few pieces together it should begin making sense pretty quickly. When everything looks good, go back and glue all the joints together with the PVC cement.
Once your frame is complete, wrap the bamboo around it and secure the fencing with zip ties or string. This may take an hour or two, but it’s worth going slow and doing a thorough job. Your plants and neighbors will thank you the next time a storm rolls through. Tie the corners to something heavy to prevent your garden from flying away—wooden pallets work well if you’re using those to support your plants, but you can also anchor the structure to the handles of your planters.
Craft the self-watering containers
There are many ways to build self-watering containers, but the basic idea is this: each one has a built-in, refillable water reservoir and a wicking mechanism that brings that water up into the soil.
And while this how-to deals with 5-gallon buckets, it’s easy to extend the underlying principles to larger containers and other types of materials once you get the hang of things.
Self-watering containers, like those seen here, mean that even if you're not always around to take care of your garden, your plants will still have enough to drink. Ryan Boysen
What you'll need:
Materials (for one container)
2 plastic 5-gallon buckets (cheaper in bulk)
2 sponges
3 strips of foot-long cotton material (one t-shirt will make enough for about a dozen containers, but it must be 100% cotton—synthetic material doesn't wick properly)
A 3-foot length of 3/4-inch PVC pipe
A large funnel (you only need one, no matter how many containers you have)
A wooden pallet or something else to elevate the planter (optional)
Tools
1/4-inch drill bit
Permanent marker
Scissors (or a boxcutter)
So, you’ve got two buckets. Put one inside the other and measure where the bottom of the inside bucket reaches on the outside bucket. Mark that spot with your marker, then draw a little circle a half-inch below that. Separate the buckets and drill a 1/4-inch hole within the circle you marked on the outside one, then set that bucket aside.
Now take the other bucket, flip it upside-down and drill a 1-inch hole in the middle of its bottom. Drill another 1-inch hole near the outside of the bottom. Now drill a dozen or so 1/4-inch holes all around.
Now, take two sponges and use a knife or scissors to cut a 2-inch-long gash in the center of each sponge. Take your cotton strips and thread them through one sponge, so about 4 inches of material sticks out the other side.
Stuff that material through the big hole in the center of the inside bucket so the sponge and the majority of the fabric remains within the bucket. Take the other sponge, place it on the outside of the bucket, and thread the dangling strips through it, making sure it’s snug against the bottom of the bucket. These pieces of cloth will wick water from the reservoir into the soil, and the sponges will ensure they stay in place.
How to set up the inside bucket, from left to right: drill holes in the bottom, place a sponge inside and thread the fabric strips through it, and then thread the cloth through a sponge on the outside. Ryan Boysen
Now put the inside bucket back into the outside bucket. Jam the 3-foot length of PVC pipe into the other 1-inch hole. With the aid of the funnel you’ll use this pipe to fill the reservoir.
When you eventually load the inside bucket with soil, try to make sure that the cotton strips extend upward to ensure even water distribution throughout the soil mixture. I’ll usually fill it one-third of the way with dirt, lay one strip across that layer, add the next third and do the same thing with another strip, then try to bury the remaining strip just below the surface.
For you visual learners, this video directly inspired my container design and it's a great way to see the process play out.
When putting the buckets in your garden, it’s best to place them on top of something to keep them from sitting directly on the roofing material. This will ensure proper drainage and prevent roof damage from any water trapped under the containers. I used wooden pallets, but pretty much anything that provides a bit of elevation will work just fine.
You should only need to fill your containers with water once or twice a week, depending on the size of the plants they hold and how much it has rained.
Mix the soil
You want your soil to be equal parts compost, vermiculite, and sphagnum moss—the amounts below are approximate.
Vermiculite and the moss are usually sold in bags of 1-3 cubic feet—more than enough for a single container. To save you the conversion time: one 5-gallon bucket holds about 0.7 cubic feet of material, so you’ll need a little less than 0.25 cubic feet of each (or about 1.5 gallons).
Compost is the most important element, and you can find the good stuff at nearby community gardens or composting operations. You can make your own, too, but it might be hard to produce enough if you're building a large garden. Still, never settle for the store-bought stuff.
For best results, it helps to sift the compost and moss to filter out any large chunks. Doing so helps ensure even water distribution throughout the soil, but if you’re tired and just want to get to the actual gardening, you can skip this step without too much worry.
What you'll need:
Materials (for one container)
1/4 cubic foot of vermiculite
1/4 cubic foot of sphagnum moss
1/4 cubic foot of compost
3 tablespoons of Azomite
3 tablespoons of kelp meal
3 tablespoons of all-purpose fertilizer
3 tablespoons of worm castings (optional)
Tools
If you’re not going to sift, simply dump the proper amount of each material onto your tarp. If you’re mixing soil for multiple containers, simply scale it up—your only limits are tarp size and how hard you want to work. If you’ve got a large container to mix in, that works, too, but a tarp is probably more practical for most apartment-dwellers.
Sprinkle kelp meal, all-purpose fertilizer, worm castings (if available), and Azomite on top. I usually use about 1 cup for six buckets worth.
Now mix it all up. Don’t half-ass it.
If you have a large container to mix the soil in, great! But if not, a tarp works just fine. Ryan Boysen
I had to pick out a bunch of worms during this process, so if your compost is also full of ‘em (which means the compost is healthy), keep them safe. Just put a little bit of compost in a small container, stash the worms in there, and then either release them into soil somewhere, or return them to wherever you got your compost. Unfortunately, the conditions inside your containers will probably not be optimal for worm survival, and a bunch of dead worms in your containers could lead to fungus or disease problems down the line.
When your soil is well-combined, put it in your containers.
If you want to sift the compost and moss, you’ll need to build a sifter.
What you'll need:
Materials (for the sifter)
2 2-foot-long 2-by-4s
2 4-foot-long 2-by-4s
A piece of 1/4-inch mesh (at least 4 feet long and 2 feet wide)
1.5-inch screws
Tools
Make a rectangle with your 2-by-4s and screw the corners together. Cut a length of mesh to fit over it all, letting the edges overlap the wooden frame so you can fasten it in place. Then, staple it tightly to the wood with the staple gun.
Place the sifter above your tarp by putting it on top of two chairs, boxes, tables, or whatever you have that’ll keep it elevated. Dump the compost into the sifter, then rub it around with your gloved hands until most of it has fallen through. Put any large bits into another container and set it aside.
Now do the same with sphagnum moss. You don’t have to sift the vermiculite.
This video is a great way to see what the process looks like.
As you get more into it, I’d recommend experimenting with liquid fertilizers to give your plants some extra oomph, but the nutrients in this mixture should be more than enough to get you, and your plants, started.
Now get out there and get gardening, and remember this: even though a man’s at odds to know his mind because his mind is aught he has to know it with, as long as you’re gardening you won’t need to trouble yourself with all that. Just stand among the screaming leaves and call down the lightning, and know that the time has come for you to reap.
Flower Tower: Landscapers Show Property Owners How To Turn Rooftops Into Gardens
A Greenpoint-based urban landscaping group is pushing Kings County property owners to take a top-down approach to environmental sustainability by transforming their rooftops into verdant gardens.
Alive Structures
The Kingsland Wildflowers rooftop is located atop Broadway Stages in Greenpoint.
BY ELIZABETH WINN
These green thumbs are taking gardening to new heights!
A Greenpoint-based urban landscaping group is pushing Kings County property owners to take a top-down approach to environmental sustainability by transforming their rooftops into verdant gardens.
“I believe that New York City needs nature and green roofs are the only place left in New York City to create a natural habitat,” said Marni Majorelle, founder of Alive Structures, located at 130 Diamond St. between Meserole and Norman avenues.
Last month, Majorelle and her team at Alive Structures hosted a panel to discuss their green-roof movement alongside other environmental advocates at a rooftop meadow, called Kingsland Wildflowers, located atop Broadway Stages in Greenpoint, which the green thumbs used as an example of rooftop gardneing done right, before discussing how sky farms can help their borough weather global warming.
“Green roofs are not just pretty or decoration,” Majorelle said. “[Green roofs are] an absolute necessity in this city as we move into a hotter and wetter climate.”
The elevated oases provide a variety of environmental benefits, including absorbing and retaining stormwater, reducing temperatures, cutting energy costs, improving air quality, and creating more homes for birds, bees, and creepy crawlies high in the sky, according to Majorelle.
However, specific structural requirements and hefty installation cost make Majorelle’s green-roof movement a tough sell for many property owners, and she praised Broadway Stages — a sound stage and equipment supplier for television productions — for jumping on the bandwagon!
Live In Your Own Farm In The Sky In This Plant-Covered Apartment Building
The concept for Farmhouse shows a vision of city living where people are more connected to their food—and get time in nature just by going out to their balcony.
07.24.19
The concept for Farmhouse shows a vision of city living where people are more connected to their food—and get time in nature just by going out to their balcony.
In the design for this new apartment building, each kitchen connects to a massive greenhouse. If you need a salad for dinner, you can harvest it yourself, or go to a farmers’ market in the lobby to buy greens from a neighbor.
[Image: courtesy Studio Precht]
The design is one variation on a modular system called Farmhouse—ranging from simple A-frame houses to multifamily buildings—intended to reconnect residents with the food system. The architects, from the Austria-based firm Studio Precht, were inspired by their own experience moving from Beijing to an off-grid life in the Austrian mountains that includes growing their own food. “It’s a very direct connection to nature,” says architect Chris Precht.
Read the complete article here.
Rooftop Garden Takes Urban Agriculture To Another Level
Of all the places on campus you’d expect to find a garden brimming with kale, Swiss chard and collard greens, the second floor of University Crossing probably isn’t one
UNIVERSITY, MILL CITY GROWS PARTNER ON GREEN ROOF GARDEN AT UNIVERSITY CROSSING
Photo by Ed Brennen
PhA student walks past the new Green Roof vegetable garden at University Crossing. Photo by Ed Brennen
04/29/2019
By Ed Brennen
Of all the places on campus you’d expect to find a garden brimming with kale, Swiss chard and collard greens, the second floor of University Crossing probably isn’t one.
But thanks to a collaboration between the university and Lowell-based urban farming nonprofit Mill City Grows, there’s a new rooftop vegetable garden outside the windows of the busy second-floor landing at the student and administrative center.
“It’s such a wonderful use of this space. I love it,” said Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance, Operations and Strategic Planning Joanne Yestramski, admiring the freshly planted crops through the floor-to-ceiling windows during the university’s Earth Day celebration. “It shows our commitment to sustainability right here, front and center, in one of the busiest places on campus.”
The primary purpose of the rooftop garden, according to Director of Sustainability Ruairi O’Mahony, is to educate passersby about the university’s Urban Agriculture Program. A wall sign provides details about the “Green Roof” garden and other urban agriculture sites around campus. Producing fresh, leafy vegetables for the university community is an added bonus.
Photo by Ed Brennen
Macayla Cote of Mill City Grows helps transfer vegetables to growing containers at the new Green Roof garden at University Crossing.
“It helps tell the story about our program and shows people what the campus is about,” says O’Mahony, who notes that the project highlights the important campus-community connection.
The Office of Sustainability and Mill City Grows, working in collaboration with the Student Government Association, designed the 500-square-foot space, which is tucked between a conference room and elevator bay on the south-facing side of the building, overlooking Salem Street.
The modular garden consists of about 180 plants growing in individual milk crates filled with nutrient-rich compost. The compost, which originated from the university’s dining halls, was developed and donated by Casella Organics. The garden is watered by an efficient, on-demand smart drip irrigation system that adjusts to local weather data.
“I’m excited to see how much yield we get in a small space,” says Mill City Grows co-founder and UML alum Lydia Sisson ’12, whose organization will oversee the day-to-day operations of the garden and harvest the produce several times a week. Most of the produce will be made available to the community through Mill City Grows’ Mobile Market.
Mill City Grows manages nearly a dozen community gardens and urban farms around the city, including two others in partnership with UML, the Urban Agriculture Greenhouse on East Campus and the community garden on Dane Street. This is their first rooftop garden.
Photo by Ed Brennen
Student Society for Sustainability President Akbar Abduljalil helps transplant crops at the new Green Roof garden at University Crossing.
“We’ve visited a lot of rooftop farms, but this is our first rooftop experiment. It’s going to be fun,” says Sisson, who notes that there are several advantages to the elevated location. “You get the heat from below, which is good, and it will definitely get a lot of sunlight. There should also be a lot less pests. But we’ll have to be careful with the wind.”
The space is one of three green roofs originally installed on the second floor of University Crossing when the building opened in 2014 (the others still exist over the main entrance and on the Merrimack Street side of the building). Designed to mitigate stormwater runoff and provide a layer of insulation to enhance the building’s energy performance in summer months, the green roofs consist of a thick carpet of sedum, a hardy perennial that holds water well.
O’Mahony says the vegetable garden will make the space even more eye-catching.
“They’re the type of crops that come up like a fountain,” he says. “It’s going to be a beautiful visual.”
Sean Cloran, who completed his biology degree last fall and is now doing an internship with the Office of Sustainability, helped O’Mahony prepare the area for the new garden.
“Hopefully it inspires people to check out the greenhouse and community garden,” Cloran says. “I think it’s going to help break down the barrier between where food comes from and where people think food comes from.”
Green Roof Ecology Students Design Projects For NYC Urban Rooftops
The fall 2018 Green Roof class projects were especially wide ranging and ambitious-and included two different green wall design proposals, a soil stormwater absorption experiment, a printed guide to common plants found on New York City green roofs, climate data analysis of microsensors installed on green roofs at both Brooklyn Grange and The New School, and a go-to all-purpose website about green roofs in the city.
Student green wall design for Vice Media headquarters in Brooklyn
FEBRUARY 22, 2019
For the last three years. Timon McPhearson, associate professor of urban ecology and director of the Urban Systems Lab, has been teaching a Green Roof Ecology class in which students collaborate to create civic engagement projects and conduct design and ecology research.
To conduct that research the class has partnered with Brooklyn Grange, the operator of the world’s two largest rooftop soil farms-and Vice Media headquarters in New York City. The class-which includes students from and Parsons School of Design and Eugene Lang College and is supported by Lang Civic Liberal Arts program —integrates design and urban ecology to innovate green roofs as spaces for improved social and environmental benefits. This course reflects The New School’s dedication to cross-disciplinary learning, design for social good, and real-world experiences. Among other benefits green roofs have vegetation that absorb storm water, provide insulation of buildings from heat, reduce noise and improve air quality.
The fall 2018 Green Roof class projects were especially wide ranging and ambitious-and included two different green wall design proposals, a soil stormwater absorption experiment, a printed guide to common plants found on New York City green roofs, climate data analysis of microsensors installed on green roofs at both Brooklyn Grange and The New School, and a go-to all-purpose website about green roofs in the city.
Architecture students Ross Myren and Antoine Antoine Vedel created one of those green wall design proposals as a site-specific design intervention for Vice headquarters in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
The duo dubbed their design the “gwaffle,” (Green Waffle) a waffle-shaped structure that they created after visiting the Vice rooftop, discussing with Brooklyn Grange, and studying the essential architecture and ecology issues necessary to build a design model.
“There was a big gap between the artificial controlled environment and the green roof and we wanted to blur the boundaries between those two spaces,” Vedel said. “We wanted to create social interaction in that space while providing environmental benefits and adding more vertical space. Its fluid and organic design brings continuity to the space, also while benefiting the environment.”
Vedel praised Vice as a great space because they already have green roof infrastructure. Although the Gwaffle was developed for Vice, he stressed that it is “a system whose dimensions and modules are adjustable to the customer’s wishes.”
www.greenroofsnyc.com, the website created by several Green Roof Ecology students, details the myriad benefits that green roofs have for city inhabits. The website also provides resources needed for an individual or organization planning to create its own green roof, including types of roof structure, labor commitments, and accessibility and FAQs on how to secure financing by the city.
“When we started the class the website, it was geared to the Vice rooftop and then we expanded it to all of New York City as a resource guide,” said Stephanie Kale, a student involved in the site’s creation. “It can benefit anybody who wants to improve air quality, increase energy efficiency and increase property value.”
McPhearson says that he envisions the website as a broader resource that is now being expanded as a media outlet of the NYC Green Roof Research Alliance.
Another class project was a design for an indirect green wall that would be made of stainless steel and created for the new Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm opening this summer in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. Students created a modular bench made of pinewood for the roof’s seating area.
“It was a great assignment,” said New School junior Jasmine Yee, one of the students who designed the indirect green wall. “I would love it if we could implement it.”
McPhearson says that every semester final class project output includes booklets, physical built prototypes, media materials and research reports and analyses.
“It’s exciting to see how this class continues to evolve as unique learning space that continues to expand beyond the university as a resource for design and ecological innovation the larger community of New York,” McPhearson said.
How Convention Centers Around The World Are Getting Greener
Aramis Velazquez - February 19, 2019
Photo: Javits Center
Kelsey Ogletree of Trade Show News Network writes:
Implementing sustainable practices isn’t just good for the environment, it’s also good for business, as many convention centers have discovered. According to the 2017 Green Venue Report (the 2018 report has not yet been released), event venues are saving millions of dollars each year thanks to sustainability upgrades through energy, waste or water conservation programs. Energy tracking for events is also improving, with 88 percent of venues surveyed reporting doing so. Yet technology is constantly changing, and what was good (or good enough) a few years ago is likely behind the times now. With that in mind, here’s a look at new sustainability efforts at some of the biggest convention centers around the country.
Convention Centers are Getting Greener
Below is a list of some the Convention Centers in our Greenroofs.com Projects Database:
The Green Venue Report (GVR) is an industry-wide initiative to provide benchmarking data, catalyze best practice, and stimulate competition around global convention & exhibition center sustainability. The report aims to give insight and content to best practices, with real data showing trends across the facets of event and venue sustainability. You can download the 2017 Green Venue Report for more detailed information.
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE, GREEN ROOFS, STORMWATER MANAGEMENT, SUSTAINABILITY
South Africa To Construct Rooftop Gardens In Johannesburg
By njeringar Feb 14, 2019
South Africa is set to construct rooftop gardens up amid the skyline of Johannesburg in bid to increase commercial production of salads and vegetables in the country.
According to Future Farms, the company contracted for the project, The basis of the farms is an A-frame holding 600 plants, grown with nutrient film technique (NFT). The A-frames are supplemented by beds filled with a medium of coconut husk, perlite, vermiculite and probiotic for crops that need to be planted in greater density, like baby spinach, rocket or parsley.
It is estimated that each rooftop garden needs six such frames to produce a minimum of 3,600 plants during each month-long cycle. Due to the LED lighting panel redesigned by Future Farms to bring down costs, as well as the re circulation of water in a hydroponic system, the electricity and water bill for each rooftop garden will come to far below US $72 a month.
No automatic ventilation or fertigation will be needed for the gardens however, there will be an extra steel in the frame to cope with wind sheer up above the city.
“We started with blue and red light but we’ve moved away from that completely to full spectrum lights because we found out that with blue and red that the plants would grow but it was just missing something, it doesn’t round the plant off nicely,” said Jeremy Rich of Future Farms.
Future Farms work primarily on large-scale commercial hydroponic farms, based on their dual system approach using both containers and tunnels, done on a cost basis appropriate for the developing world and beyond. In the containers every aspect of the growing cycle is controlled, allowing a growth cycle from seed to a 250g head of lettuce within 28 days.
The community will be the largest shareholder in the farm, run by local entrepreneurs who have cut their teeth at the school farm, supplying produce to a large retailer.
Urban Agriculture Gives Paris Space To Breathe
In the last few decades, manmade surfaces have taken over green space, leading to urban heat islands and more pollution in the air. It’s left Paris, like many other big cities, with higher urban temperatures and a greater risk of flooding as rain can no longer be absorbed into the ground
8 February 2019 — Article by JLL Staff Reporter
Green walls, rooftop gardens and urban farms are aiming to bring nature back into central Paris as the city looks to improve its air quality and create a more sustainable future.
In the last few decades, man made surfaces have taken over green space, leading to urban heat islands and more pollution in the air. It’s left Paris, like many other big cities, with higher urban temperatures and a greater risk of flooding as rain can no longer be absorbed into the ground.
To counter these issues, local authorities are increasingly looking to incorporate more greenery into both old and new buildings as well as developing public parks and gardens.
“Within the framework of the “Objectif 100 hectares” plan signed in 2016, Paris decided to launch the new Parisculteurs initiative to encourage innovative initiatives to cover 100 hectares of buildings in vegetation by 2020, of which a third would be dedicated to urban agriculture,” says Virginie Houzé, research director at JLL.
“Schools, office blocks and residential buildings all got involved. By incorporating vegetation in buildings, particularly on roofs and facades, it has helped to bring natural spaces back to the city without the need for additional land. These allow for temperature regulation while purifying air and water and encouraging biodiversity.”
The new normal?
Growing numbers of buildings are joining the movement. Start-up Sous les Fraises has been creating urban farms across the city growing fruits and herbs while plans are afoot to transform four terraces on the Bastille Opera into a farm for fruit, vegetables and edible flowers.
Other projects, such as La Ferme de la Bourse, aim to create a hydroponic farm to grow produce that can be distributed to nearby residents, tying into the growing consumer appetite for locally sourced food. Elsewhere, Stream Building has a vertical hop garden to provide protection over the summer before the crop is harvested to brew beer on site.
“Today, consumers in developed countries are increasingly conscious of the quality of the food they eat, the use of pesticides and genetic modification as well as thinking of the distance that food must travel to reach their plates,” says Houzé.
“Urban agriculture therefore has a double impact. It both increases the amount of green space in a city, helping people retain a connection with nature while encouraging them to consumer local products and assuage some of the social and ecological concerns that people have.”
The idea is spreading beyond Paris: cities like Toulouse and Lyon are welcoming their own urban farms. And within the wider Paris metropolitan area, it’s helping to bring previously neglected spaces back into productive use. The Urban Agriculture in Morangis project in Essonne has converted 7,780 square metres of wasteland into an urban agriculture site alongside 3,670 square metres for residential development.
A step in the right direction
Even as urban farming becomes more popular, it remains a way to bring nature back into the city and improve the wellbeing of residents rather than revamp local food chains.
“We don’t have sufficient surfaces available in the Ile-de-France areas to grow enough food to feasibly feed people living in and around Paris so it still needs to be brought in from other areas,” says Houzé. “But it’s a nice touch for restaurants and hotels to offer home-grown produce on their menus.”
Not all projects are visible. “Hydroponics or aquaponics projects, for example, grow crops in enclosed spaces and sometimes deprived of natural light such as basements or car parks,” explains Houzé. “These help to meet local production expectations but do not address the issues of air pollution or urban heat that require a much broader approach.”
And while the steadily growing number of rooftop farms and living walls around the city won’t solve the urban heat island effect on their own, they are a step in the right direction at a time when many countries are upping their efforts to tackle global warming and reduce high levels of air pollution.
“More vegetation can only be a positive thing for Paris and the people who live here,” Houzé concludes. “However, it will take time and many more buildings to become visibly greener that environmental progress will
Meet The Designer Putting Rooftop Gardens On Cars in NYC
By placing lightweight “green” roofs composed of plant life on the tops of cars and buses, Marco Castro Cosio’s Bus Roots aims to unlock an extra 1,000,000 square feet of green space in New York City
Following up on their NYC Is Green content series, Mercedes-Benz EQ and arts-focused media production company Created Here are placing the spotlight on sustainability advocate and NYC-based interactive designer Marco Castro Cosio. After taking us behind-the-scenes with visual artist Zaria Forman, who creates large-scale paintings of arctic and ocean landscapes to raise awareness for climate change, and highlighting Dan Barasch, a community developer building a fully underground park in NYC, Mercedes-Benz EQ is capping their content series by featuring the innovative work of Castro Cosio.
As an innovation consultant with residencies at Columbia, NYU, and TED, and as the mind behind Bus Roots, an initiative that installs “green” roofs on the tops of vehicles, Marco Castro Cosio represents the environmental ingenuity NYC Is Green stands for.
By placing lightweight “green” roofs composed of plant life on the tops of cars and buses, Marco Castro Cosio’s Bus Roots aims to unlock an extra 1,000,000 square feet of green space in New York City. Castro Cosio’s contribution would generate more plant life in NYC – which helps to provide refuge to the city’s wildlife and pollinators – and his green roofs would serve as a natural coolant for the sweltering New York summers. Watch the video above to learn more about Marco Castro Cosio’s green roofs, his commitment to NYC sustainability, and more.
This Hidden U Of T Rooftop Farm Helps Feed the Hungry—and Could Impact How Cities Eat
Plus, find out how some U of T alumni are keeping the project alive.
By Kimberly Lyn
To feed Toronto, we must import more than 6000 tonnes of food every single day. As a result, more than 30 per cent of Toronto's environmental footprint is food-related—including the impact of shipping, pesticides and packaging. In fact, Toronto's food footprint affects the environment even more than its car traffic. And the reliance on imports also comes with a social cost: for those in poverty, fresh, organic produce can be hard to access.
But atop an engineering building at the University of Toronto, students are conducting a living experiment in doing food differently: one of the city's biggest and most innovative food-producing rooftop gardens.
For more than eight years, Sky Garden's student and alumni volunteer farmers have planted, watered, weeded, and harvested produce on the bright, windswept rooftop of U of T's Galbraith Building. Their yield clocks in at an impressive 500 pounds of fresh, organic produce a year, and they send more than half of it directly to nearby Scott Mission—so that people in need can receive hot meals made with organic, locally grown produce.
“The garden takes inanimate concrete and transforms it into something that’s growing things,” says Matt Stata, a PhD student in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, who helps oversee the project.
“It’s an example of what's possible,” says Stata. “There are so many unused roof spaces in Toronto that could be producing food... and so many people who would love to garden, but don't have any space to do it. And the people at Scott Mission are ecstatic when we bring over bags and bags of fresh produce. There's a real need.”
That vision is shared by U of T's affinity partners and alumni, who help fund the Sky Garden project. When alumni use a U of T MBNA credit card, or sign up for insurance through Manulife or TD Insurance, these affinity partners contribute a portion of the proceeds to Sky Garden—as well as to other key U of T alumni and student initiatives that are making an impact on our community.
Sky Garden's unique containers
Sky Garden is catching on: its volunteers have been called on to help set up similar rooftop gardens for other Toronto buildings and residences.
Rooftop gardens are a compelling idea because they offer all the benefits of a conventional green roof—stormwater retention, heat reduction, and air quality improvement—but with the added benefits of producing food, building a stronger sense of community, and helping connect people to food, nature, and each other.
Of course, farming on a roof comes with its challenges. Sky Garden's volunteer farmers use special, lightweight semi-hydroponic containers (featuring only a thin layer of soil) instead of covering the whole roof in soil, to ensure the farm doesn't exceed the roof's weight limit—since older roofs like Galbraith's can only bear so much.
They've also learned to cultivate shorter plants, as tall plants such as sunflowers can be bowled over by the strong rooftop wind. "We're actually growing corn this year," Stata says, "but it's a dwarf variety."
Sky Garden volunteers, Cindy and Matt.
Plus, not all produce works out. "We can't seem to grow kale," Stata muses. "We don't get too many pests up here, but for some reason, aphids just go bonkers for our kale."
But with every year that passes, the students have learned more and more about rooftop farming.
Give pumpkins and squash a few buckets to stretch out in, like they would in a real field.
Rip out plants as soon as they've stopped producing, and replace them with ones that are ready to produce—that way you use your containers more efficiently, and get a much bigger yield.
And don't even think about hand-watering and hand-fertilizing—it might work for a small garden, but it isn't viable for a farm of Sky Garden's size. Instead, the students installed an automated drip irrigation system, so each plant can suck up as much fertilized water as it needs, without drowning or drying out.
Sky Garden has also become a hub for other urban agricultural experiments. It's home to a year-round beekeeping operation, a solar-powered fruit dehydrator, and an array of unusual and heirloom produce—from ghost-white pumpkins to blue (yes, blue) tomatoes.
Sky Garden tomatoes. Photo by Jesse Milns
Student farmers are also trained in seed collection and preservation, and are encouraged to grow their own pet projects. In 2018, Sky Garden is hosting a student's struggling goji berry plant, testing out baby bok choy, and tackling their very first crop of mushrooms—grown in buckets of used coffee grounds, acquired "from a deal we struck with the local Second Cup," says Stata.
And the results have been mouth-watering. "There's a noticeable difference between our melons and grocery store melons," says Stata. "By letting our melons ripen on the vine, they're so much sweeter."
But the sweetest thing of all, according to Stata?
"Seeing how excited the students are to learn."
When you use U of T alumni financial services, you support Sky Garden too. Learn more »
Botanist And Agricultural Researcher - Rooftop Gardens Have Huge Potential As Food Source
November 23, 2018
MA Sobhan
Botanist and agricultural researcher MA Sobhan talks with New Age Staff Correspondent Sadiqur Rahman about rooftop gardening
Dhaka is among the most densely populated cities having thousands of buildings for habitation.
Residents can create well-planned garden in the rooftop, MA Sobhan says as he sees a huge opportunity to turn the rooftop gardens into earning sources for urban people.
Citing the Cuban experience, he says that Cuba has become the pioneer of urban horticulture, especially in rooftop and balcony gardening. At least 70 per cent fo the Cubans live in urban areas.
They not only can meet their daily demands of vegetables and fruits from their own gardens but also earn some extra by selling them.
‘Bangladesh’s weather is almost similar to that of Cuba. People here can make use of it by farming vegetables and fruits at their rooftop and balcony gardens throughout the year beside flower. This is a country of six seasons and varied crops can be grown in each season,’ Sobhan says.
Moreover, there are some vegetables like tomato, asparagus bean, okra, sour gourd, sweet gourd, bitter gourd, pointed gourd, pumpkin, cucumber, bottle gourd, and basil, pumpkin leaf, coriander, taro stem and stem amaranth which are now grown in all seasons.
The botanist says that vegetable and fruit farming on rooftop obviously can ensure nutritious foods for the growers.
At present, parents are worried about their children’s health that vegetables and fruits available in market may have been grown in pesticide-applied fields or coated with toxic preservative.
Sobhan believes that home-grown vegetables will be free of these unhealthy substances as organic farming is getting popular for the rooftop gardening.
He says, ‘I think, children of the urban families having rooftop gardens will be benefited in a different way. Besides taking vegetables and fruits, they can learn about the plants. They also have the opportunity to breathe very fresh air while playing near the plants’.
Sobhan has planted coconut, palm and banana trees on his rooftop. Although he knows that the trees in containers will be less productive, he planted them for his grandchildren so that they can learn about trees.
Sobhan says the green roof reduces temperature during summer and keeps the building warm in winter. It purifies the ambient by absorbing carbon dioxide as well as particulate matters and controls spread of diseases.
He thinks that the government should provide necessary policy directions with amendment of the national building policy to promote rooftop gardening in the city area.
He says that enthusiast people in Dhaka can collect samplings of vegetable and fruits from Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation outlets at Manik Mia Avenue, Gabtali, Siddique Bazar of Old Dhaka or other government-facilitated nurseries.
As a botanist, Sobhan served in Bangladesh Jute Research Institute. He is a hobbyist gardener. Wherever he got the chance, he did gardening. Although he retired from BJRI, Sobhan is still well-known at BJRI at Manik Mia Avenue as he created a garden there with more than 2,500 plants.
Father of three daughters, Sobhan is currently living at Mirpur with his wife and two families of his daughters. ‘Although the other members are not gardeners like me, they enjoy the garden much,’ he says.
Sometimes when he cannot manage time to look after the garden he visits it on a regular basis as the habit makes him feel better.
Sobhan is currently serving as president of http://beezbistar.org/, an organisation promoting conservation of local seeds as well as indigenous agricultural practices.
Rooftop Greenhouse Teaches, Nourishes and Empowers Students
The nation’s first student-run rooftop greenhouse with the capacity for year-round food production helps stock the UA Campus Pantry.
By Emily Dieckman, UA College of Engineering
Nov. 20, 2018
Gene Giacomelli, left, former director of the UA's Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, talks tomatoes with Todd Millay, director of the Arizona Student Unions, in the greenhouse on the Student Union roof.
EXTRA INFO
The UA Campus Pantry has food distribution days from noon to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the academic year. Tours of the rooftop garden are available on Wednesday mornings at 10 a.m. and can be signed up for at the Arizona Student Unions information desk.
Stacy Tollefson, project and production manager for the greenhouse and a professor of practice in the Department of Biosystems Engineering, tends the crops in the greenhouse atop the UA student union building.
Twice a week in the basement of the Student Union Memorial Center, about 500 students, faculty and staff pick up free groceries at the University of Arizona Campus Pantry.
Twice a week on the roof of the student union, UA students and future commercial growers harvest cucumbers, tomatoes and bell peppers from the Rooftop Greenhouse and send the vegetables down to the Campus Pantry. This student-designed, and mostly student-run, controlled-environment facility is the first rooftop campus greenhouse in the nation that can produce food year-round, with 10 times the productivity of an outdoor garden.
“We harvest on the same days the campus pantry does distribution and bring the food right down, so the produce is super fresh,” said Stacy Tollefson, project and production manager for the greenhouse and a professor of practice in the Department of Biosystems Engineering, as well as an expert vegetable grower for the UA’s nationally recognized Controlled Environment Agriculture educational program.
Seed of an Idea
Student volunteer Maggie Lacross, UA Campus Pantry operations chair, offers some nutrition guidelines.
When Todd Millay became director of the Arizona Student Unions in December 2016, he was excited to see there was a small outdoor garden on the roof being run by staff. When he heard about the Campus Pantry, which was serving about 30-40 people every few weeks, he offered pantry volunteers a central campus location in the Student Union, but noticed they weren’t receiving many fresh produce donations. The potential for connection seemed clear.
“Why don’t we just make a better garden on the roof and send the food down?” he thought. “And maybe instead of Student Union employees figuring out how to do this, we could ask students how to build it.”
Millay and some Student Union colleagues partnered with the UA Office of Student Engagement and launched a four-month competition. Twenty-five groups of five students each were given a hypothetical $50,000 budget to design a cost-effective, productive and sustainable system to grow fresh produce for the Campus Pantry. Coca Cola, Shamrock Farms, the UA Student Union, the UA Student Services Fees Grant and the UA Green Funds Grant helped finance the competition and the eventual greenhouse.
The winning team, composed of four UA College of Engineering students and one UA College of Agriculture and Life Sciences student, proposed a 750-square-foot temperature-controlled greenhouse that would grow tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers. Design advice from Gene Giacomelli, a professor of biosystems engineering and the former director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture program, combined with donations from companies like Autogrow, Formflex, Grodan, Wadsworth Control Systems and Polytex Inc., led to the greenhouse’s construction in 2018.
The Tech Behind the Tomatoes
The greenhouse is temperature-controlled and could yield produce year-round, but the team harvests for nine months and takes the summer off to prepare for new student recruits and start afresh. In those nine months, Tollefson expects the greenhouse to yield 3,000 pounds of cucumbers, 1,200 pounds of tomatoes, 800 pounds of cherry tomatoes and 250 pounds of bell peppers.
The plants don’t get their nutrients from soil, but from two large tanks of solution with just the right mix of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and other nutrients. Any solution that isn’t absorbed by the greenhouse’s four rows of plants is recirculated back into the tanks, revitalized and fed back to the plants.
“We’re saving tons of water with this recirculating hydroponic system because we’re only losing maybe 5 percent to evaporation, and we’re saving tons of nutrients,” Tollefson said.
In addition to conserving water and nutrients, the recirculation system ensures that no fertilizer water is discharged into the environment. Another hi-tech feature is that the greenhouse climate and irrigation control systems are connected to the internet: The greenhouse team can log in and monitor the nutrient solution for pH, electrical conductivity and temperature from their phones.
Efforts Bearing Fruit
Tollefson, who has a Ph.D. in agricultural and biosystems engineering, said working at the greenhouse has been an excellent learning experience, even for her – this is the first time she has grown hydroponic tomatoes while recirculating the nutrient solution, so both she and the students are learning how to manage plant nutrition more efficiently. Student interns are learning hydroponic cultivation techniques and greenhouse management techniques that translate to valuable career skills.
“There’s a tremendous demand out in the industry for people who know how to operate these greenhouses because of the recent interest in locally grown and urban agriculture,” Giacomelli said.
Tollefson oversees two interns – plant sciences major Chris Patzke and veterinary science major Tyler Rodriquez – and full-time greenhouse manager Quinn Waltz, a senior majoring in agricultural technology management.
The greenhouse team makes frequent visits to the greenhouse to check on the hydroponic system, care for the plants and monitor the environmental conditions, and harvest, weigh and deliver the crops to the Campus Pantry. The idea is to make sure everything is running smoothly – and it certainly is. This fall, the cucumber plants were growing about 2 feet a week, and the tomato plants about 18 inches. The tomatoes and bell peppers are just starting to ripen, but they’re already delivering about 50 pounds of cucumbers to the pantry each week.
“We keep the conditions just right,” Patzke said. “Happy plants grow really fast.”
The students in the greenhouse say they love knowing their work is making a difference in the Wildcat community.
“It’s inspiring and humbling to know we are the first ones working on this project,” Waltz said. “We are setting the foundation for future students who want to be a part of something that impacts others, and want to learn about how and where their food comes from.”
AccorHotels Now Using 600 Onsite Urban Food Gardens
Hospitality giant Accor Hotels has announced that it is on track to install urban fruit and vegetable gardens at 1,000 of its 4,500 global hotels by 2020
9 August 2018, source edie newsroom
Hospitality giant AccorHotels has announced that it is on track to install urban fruit and vegetable gardens at 1,000 of its 4,500 global hotels by 2020, as part of its commitment to cut emissions from food transportation and reduce its food waste output.
The urban vegetable garden at Novotel London Waterloo produced enough pesticide-free basil to stock the kitchen all summer
The hotelier has today (August 9) revealed that it has fitted 600 of its locations worldwide with the gardens, which supply fresh vegetables, herbs and salads to be used in its restaurant and bar menus, putting the chain on track to meet its target of installing 400 more over the next two years. To date, 26 of these gardens are at UK branches, including the Novotel hotels in Canary Wharf, Paddington and Waterloo.
AccorHotels said in a statement that the move to build the gardens would help the company meet its target of reducing food waste from its restaurants – which collectively serve more than 150 million meals each year - by 30% by 2020, while boosting the traceability, and reducing the environmental footprint, of its produce supply chains.
“As a group that produces a lot of food for our guests across the world, it is vital that we play our part in reducing food waste and investing in sustainable food systems,” AccorHotels’ chief operating officer for Northern Europe, Thomas Dubaere, said.
“Our hotels are encouraged to source local produce, reducing the environmental impact from their food purchases and providing outlets for farmers to sell their produce.”
As well as shortening the produce supply chain, AccorHotels claims that installing urban gardens has improved the biodiversity and air quality in the areas surrounding its hotels, reduced the urban heat island effect and urban runoff and provided better heat and sound insulation to buildings which have rooftop gardens.
In addition to produce from onsite, pesticide-free gardens – which make use of hydroponic, aquaponic and vertical farming innovations to thrive - AccorHotels regularly uses honey produced from beehives on hotel rooftops across its restaurants. For example, the Novotel London Tower Bridge has recently been fitted with hives on its rooftop garden, with AccorHotels estimating that this will enable kitchen and bar staff to harvest 30kg of honey by the end of 2018.
Branching out
AccorHotels’ commitment to build urban gardens at its hotels forms part of the chain’s Planet 21 sustainability strategy, which was launched in 2012 and sets out a range of 2020 targets across topics such as eco-design, energy efficiency and water stewardship, alongside sustainably sourced food.
The strategy additionally includes the company’s Plant For The Planet initiative, which has seen AccorHotels commit to plant 10 million trees by 2021 through a string of global agroforestry and reforestation projects.
As of 2016, it has planted five million trees in 26 countries through the initiative – but Dubaere noted that the need to champion sustainable agriculture in a city environment had grown since Plant For The Planet launched in 2009.
“Our backing of agroforestry projects supports sustainable food production in rural areas, but almost 70% of the global population will live in cities by 2050, so we also feel it is important to mitigate the increasing consumption in urban areas,” Dubaere added.
The launch of the urban garden initiative came after AccorHotels last year became a signatory of WRAP’s Courtauld Commitment 2025, committing to achieve at least a 20% reduction in food waste and greenhouse gas emissions. To date, more than XYZ companies across a range of sectors have signed up to the commitment, with signatories representing 95% of the UK food market.
Sarah George
"Greening" The Green Monster: Fenway Park Farms
The Boston Red Sox, Recover Green Roofs, and Green City Growers took “going green” to a whole new level
Image Credit: Green City Growers/https://greencitygrowers.com/fenway-farms/fenway-farms-faq/
The Boston Red Sox, Recover Green Roofs, and Green City Growers took “going green” to a whole new level when they transformed Fenway Park (the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball history) into prime real estate for urban farming.
Fenway Farms, the result of their successful collaboration, serves as a benchmark for large-scale urban farming operations. The rooftop garden project started as an initiative sponsored by the Boston Red Sox, who felt compelled to give back to fans and members of the local community in the greenest way imaginable. By turning the rooftop of the Green Monster, a beloved section of the ballpark's seating area, into an urban farm, the team was able to repurpose an underutilized space into a creative way to give back to their community.
Fenway Farms is situated atop a 5,000 square foot roof right above the Red Sox front offices. Completed within a month, the farm installation process only cost $200,000, proving that "going green" doesn't always need to be a costly project.
The farm grows close to 6,000 lbs. of organic produce and herbs every year using a milk crate container growing system. While most of the produce collected from the gardens supplies Fenway Park's in-park restaurants, a significant portion of the fresh produce is donated to the local community through the non-profit food rescue organization Lovin’ Spoonfuls. Fenway Farms further promotes environmental stability by mitigating the effects of air pollution, conserving energy, lessening the impact of the “Urban Heat Island Effect,” and managing stormwater runoff.
Fenway Farms is a true team effort. Recover Green Roofs designed, built, and installed the rooftop farming system, while Green City Growers handles all aspects of farm management. The collaborative work of both companies has won them prestigious environmental awards. In 2017, Recover Green Roofs received the Intensive Institutional Award of Excellence and Green City Growers received the Walden Woods Project’s Environmental Challenge Award in recognition of their work on Fenway Farms.
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.
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.
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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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
Developers Concerned By Councillor's Motion To Make Green Roofs Mandatory In Vancouver
Roofs with gardens and greenery on top could become a lot more common in Vancouver if a motion is successfully passed at city hall Tuesday — but developers are concerned that they weren't consulted first.
Developers Concerned By Councillor's Motion To Make Green Roofs Mandatory In Vancouver
Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr says it would help the city cope with increasing rainfall
Micki Cowan · CBC News · Posted: Jul 24, 2018
The green roof on top of the Vancouver Convention Centre is the largest of its kind in Canada. (Denis Dossman/CBC)
Roofs with gardens and greenery on top could become a lot more common in Vancouver if a motion is successfully passed at city hall Tuesday — but developers are concerned that they weren't consulted first.
Coun. Adriane Carr wants to make having a green roof mandatory for new large buildings, including commercial, industrial, institutional and multi-family residential developments. Single-family homes wouldn't be impacted.
Carr said there are a host of reasons behind the motion, the most immediate being coping with excess rainfall in the city.
"People probably around the city have seen the bubbling up of the water from our storm sewer, drains that come out and flood their streets. We have an excess of water and we need to deal with it and green roofs are a great way to do it," she said.
A study from BCIT's centre for architectural ecology found that a green roof reduced rainfall runoff by 28 per cent when averaged between the wet and dry seasons.
The convention centre's green roof helps prevent runoff from entering the city sewers. (Denis Dossman) CBC
Carr said Toronto introduced a similar bylaw and found green roofs reduced the amount of rainwater hitting the streets by about 25 percent because it gets absorbed by the roofs.
That could have cost-saving measures for the City of Vancouver, according to Carr.
"It would reduce our costs a lot, because we're having to replace pipes, and it increases the capacity because primarily we are getting more rain and we are expected, under climate-change predictions, to get even more rain in the future," she said.
Concern from developers
But the Urban Development Institute, which represents 870 members in the development and planning industry, voiced concerns about the proposal.
"As a key city stakeholder, we are extremely disappointed UDI was not consulted in the development of the Mandatory Green Roofs Motion, and that there does not appear to be any plans to engage the industry," the institute said in a press release.
Of particular concern were added construction costs and the potential for conflict with urban design policies for peaked roofs or green objectives like solar panels.
The Vancouver Public Library's $15.5-million revitalization project includes plans for a rooftop garden. (VPL)
Carr said she expected there would be some pushback from developers, but said in the long term, green roofs save on heating and cooling costs and therefore contribute to overall savings.
She said many developers in Vancouver are already choosing to incorporate green spaces on rooftops into their designs, for play space for children, garden space and patio areas.
Green roofs are part of the plan for several major projects in Vancouver, including the redevelopment of the Plaza of Nations and the Oakridge Centre.
The Vancouver Park Board tweeted out this concept image of what the green space at the redeveloped Oakridge Centre could look like.(@ParkBoard/Twitter)
If the motion is passed successfully, staff will be instructed to draft a green roofs policy for council to vote on at a later date.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Micki Cowan Reporter/producer
Micki is a reporter and producer at CBC Vancouver. Her passions are municipal issues and water security.