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NESDAY | JUNE 4 | 2008
Thursday.March 28.2024 Peak » prpeak.com
Spring
HOME AND GARDEN
Living roof can save energy and the climate Green space offers habitat, insulation and cooling TANYA HILL thill@prpeak.com
Municipalities, cities and individuals have many reasons for deciding to go green on the roofs
of their businesses, community spaces or homes. One is climate change mitigation, another is energy savings. Also called living architecture, or living roofs, they can create a space that is cooling, insulated and alive, instead of a heat sink with only one purpose: to provide a roof over one’s head. Horticulturist Darren Burns and his crew have been creating beautiful landscape designs for folks in the qathet region for more than 20
years, but recently took on a new challenge, installing a green roof. “They [green roofs] have been in Europe for years and this company called ZinCo from Germany recently brought it [the technology] to Canada,” said Burns. Some lesser-known benefits to greening the roof of a building is its ability to reduce stormwater runoff, improve air quality and create habitat for birds and pollinators. “The roof that went over the garage and parts of the lower level is
flat with very minimal slope,” said Burns. “It was just black asphalt, so we put a green roof primarily with sedums, which are succulents and drought tolerant, and we also installed some different perennials.” The trend now for many gardeners in coastal communities of BC is to plant native and drought-tolerant plants to avoid the need to use a lot of water. The green roof installed south of town doesn’t need an irrigation system, said Burns,
although a little watering now and then won’t hurt. “Aesthetically, [the green roof] looks good, but one of the big reasons people want that kind of roof is it captures water from run-off,” he added. Burns said, for example, in Hamburg, Germany, 70 per cent of roofs are considered green. “When you get a big rainstorm, because the water filters through it, there is not a big gush of water that causes storm sewers to over-
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