Green Roofs Now Required by Law in Copenhagen
Original Source: http://www.treehugger.com
Author: Brian Merchant
Original Publication Date: June 9, 2010
A new policy adopted last month has made green roofs required by law on all new buildings with roof slopes of less than 30 degrees. The initiative is one part of the city’s plan to become totally carbon neutral by 2025, Inhabitat reports (via GOOD). And it’s pretty impressive how much new green growth the policy will lead to:
5,000 square meters a year will be covered with vegetation, the city hopes. As you likely know, green roofs have already begun to change architecture and planningaround the world in some major ways — this most recent development is a welcome addition, but hardly surprising, given how green Copenhagen already is.
Green roofs are already required in the city of Toronto, and continue to grow fast in the US.
For the uninitiated, here’s a quick primer on the virtues of green roofs:
Vegetated roofs, or green roofs, provide several benefits for buildings and their surroundings. They can absorb as much as 80% of rainfall, helping to reduce stress on stormwater systems. They help reduce urban temperatures (the “heat island effect”). And, they protect roof membranes from the sun’s UV rays and the greatest temperature swings, such that roof membrane life is extended as much as double that of an unprotected membrane.
And Copenhagen is about to have a whole lot more of them.
