Go Blue and Green!

I just learned today through the wonderful Living Architecture Monitor that in May, Toronto became the first major urban center in North America to adopt a green roof bylaw. The bylaw will require green roofs on all new schools, nonprofit housing, multi-unit residential, commercial, and industrial buildings in 2010.

There are so many benefits of green roofs beyond stormwater retention: use of wasted roof space, social benefits (recreation, food production), habitat, extended life of the roof, aesthetics, improved efficiency of roof-mounted air conditioners, and in general helping to control the temperature of the building.

I think Michael Krause (chair of the Green Infrastructure Foundation (GIF) board) summed up my motto nicely in this issue: “restoring ecological function to urban infrastructure through more environmentally conscious design and construction.”

I was proud to see that Philadelphia ranked 5th in terms of green roof square footage installed in 2008 at a whopping 196,820 square feet.

I also found the Environmental and Energy Study Institute Climate Change newsletter fascinating this week.

For example, here is a great new tool showing projected changes in temperature and precipitation for the US: http://www.climatewizard.org/. You can even choose the IPCC emission scenario and the general circulation model. Other than that: more bad news for Central American coffee and polar bears.

But remember, YOU can do something: take canvas bags to the grocery store, plant a tree, take the stairs, take the bus, unplug your cell phone charger. Go blue and green!