What's a Green Roof and How Does it Help the Environment?
A green roof replaces traditional roofing with a lightweight, living system of soil, compost, and plants. It creates a thin, green skin atop a building that gives a little something back to the world.
The plants–and the dirt and gravel that hold them–filter rainwater and some of its pollutants. The plants produce oxygen that help clean the air. A green roof reduces a building's heating and cooling costs, acting as a form of insulation. And they lessen the heat island effect, in which buildings warm up so much that they heat the surroundings.
Career Discovery: Landscape Architecture
Learn how a landscape architect creates a Green Roof:
The ASLA Green Roof Education Program is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a generous contribution from the landscape architecture firm Lewis Scully Gionet, Inc.
Sponsored by ASLA | © 2016