The Robertson Building
What's new
Green roofs and the City of Toronto
Submitted by erinmackeen on November 11, 2006 - 3:19pm.
Filed under: green | roof garden
Filed under: green | roof garden
The City of Toronto has been at the forefront of organized green roof activity over the last several years. In early 1990's volunteers under the Rooftop Garden Resource Group (RGRG) gathered to promote green roof development in the city. In 1999, this group was succeeded by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a not-for-profit industry association that supports green roof market develop, advocacy, and education in North America.
The City of Toronto has been an active participant in studying the economic benefits of green roofs as a sustainable design technique that can help to mitigate many urban environmental challenges. In 2004, in partnership with the Ontario Centre for Excellence in Technology (OCE-ETech) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the City of Toronto contracted a team of Ryerson researchers to develop a cost-benefit analysis of green roof technology for the City of Toronto. The client wanted to expand their understanding of: the types of green roof technology currently, to measure the economic benefits of green roofs including any potential monetary savings to the municipality through the use of green roofs on a city-wide scale. The Ryerson team was made up of professors and graduate students, including Urbanspace Property Group's Environment, Health and Safety Coordinator, Beth Anne Currie. Beth Anne completed her masters in environmental science and management at Ryerson, and was able to share her thesis results on the air pollution benefits associated with green roofs to this report for the City of Toronto.
Information was also collected about the types of buildings in Toronto that could sustain a green roof and examined the impact of their geographic distribution and impacts on storm-sewer sheds, air pollution, and air temperatures. The information collected was modeled in a GIS database and used for aggregating these benefits on a city-wide basis. The Ryerson team also developed a method to compute the monetary value of these environmental benefits. For more specific information on costs-benefits: www.toronto.ca/greenroofs.
The City of Toronto has been an active participant in studying the economic benefits of green roofs as a sustainable design technique that can help to mitigate many urban environmental challenges. In 2004, in partnership with the Ontario Centre for Excellence in Technology (OCE-ETech) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the City of Toronto contracted a team of Ryerson researchers to develop a cost-benefit analysis of green roof technology for the City of Toronto. The client wanted to expand their understanding of: the types of green roof technology currently, to measure the economic benefits of green roofs including any potential monetary savings to the municipality through the use of green roofs on a city-wide scale. The Ryerson team was made up of professors and graduate students, including Urbanspace Property Group's Environment, Health and Safety Coordinator, Beth Anne Currie. Beth Anne completed her masters in environmental science and management at Ryerson, and was able to share her thesis results on the air pollution benefits associated with green roofs to this report for the City of Toronto.
Information was also collected about the types of buildings in Toronto that could sustain a green roof and examined the impact of their geographic distribution and impacts on storm-sewer sheds, air pollution, and air temperatures. The information collected was modeled in a GIS database and used for aggregating these benefits on a city-wide basis. The Ryerson team also developed a method to compute the monetary value of these environmental benefits. For more specific information on costs-benefits: www.toronto.ca/greenroofs.