Ultimate roof gardens

Karen Joslin, a friend and realtor in Philadelphia, just sent information about a company in her fair city called Roofscapes, Inc. They have a product, or maybe it's a concept and a devotion that ends up as a product, called the Roofmeadow.

This goes way beyond the roof gardens that a lot of city dwellers plant to remind themselves of the outdoors. It's a serious commitment for urban roofs, with positive effects that go beyond the building.  A Roofmeadow is just about what it sounds like.

Here are some key points about the Roofmeadow,  from the FAQ file on the Roofscapes website:

Green roofs provide many ecological and aesthetic benefits, including:

•  Controlling stormwater runoff, erosion and pollution,
•  Improving water quality,
•  Mitigating urban heat-island effects, cooling and cleaning the air,
•  More than doubling the service life of the roof,
•  Conserving energy,
•  Reducing sound reflection and transmission,
•  Creating wildlife habitat, and
•  Improving the aesthetic environment in both work and home settings.

Thanks, Karen, and keep 'em coming.

~ Doug Logan, New Energy Watch

Comments

[JP]

While not directly related to this post, I wanted to mention that I was down at the International Builders Show in Orlando last week.

They indeed did have the Home of the Future out back, and it was pretty interesting.

What I thought was more important, however, were that individual product vendors were "clicking on" the green lightbulb.

In other words, even big companies like Kohler and Marvin see the dollars in being "or at least selling" green.

This means that we should see a real turnaround in green homebuilding products soon.

Here's a link to a similar house in Omaha, NE that aims to bring affordable techologies into everyday new construction:

http://forums.prospero.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?webtag=fh-pathproject