Green Roofs are like a superhero in the world of environmental degradation, the Batman to our Gotham City. All I kept thinking when I was reading the paper was, “How does my apartment building charge $987654321 for rent but they cant afford to put a green roof on top of the building?” But honestly though, green roofs are an almost too good to be true answer to the environmental dilemmas that seem to be plaguing our urban landscape. We, as a class and a city, recognize that the lack of space is a growing concern because there is literally nowhere left to add green space or natural ecosystems. The text stated that, “in the mid-Manhattan west section of New York, 94% of the land is covered with impervious surfaces…which leaves little room for plating trees at ground level.” However, if we were to raise the height at which we could construct natural landscapes or grow vegetation we would have access to around 40-50% more space! I think what the text did best was highlight the benefits of having green roofs. The most incredible were that green roofs could dramatically reduce air pollution or reduce the amount of energy used for both heating and cooling. In terms of water quality and storm water runoff, the text stated if 20% of Washington DC buildings had green roofs, the city could store more than 958 million liters of rainwater, preventing the combined sewage overflow. We mentioned this past class that NYC doesn’t take enough care of its untreated wastewater, but green roofs would directly mitigate the effect of this problem.
The last page/section highlight(s) a number of interesting issues that need to be taken into consideration! Cost is a huge issue that must be addressed when building green roofs because the short-term expense might be daunting. I think the text cites that creating a green roof could cost around 35.2 billion dollars but it’s so imperative that we think of the long-term benefits that the text addresses, because there is no shortage of them. I think it’s really crucial that studies be conducted that provide a cost-benefit analysis comparing expenditure costs with operation, installation, maintenance, etc. to the overall benefits of both intensive and extensive green roofs. If these cost benefit analyses were able to highlight how great green roofs were, it would be far easier to change the tide in terms of public policy and legislation. However, cost-benefit analyses won’t be enough because journals and research can’t truly inform people about how cool green roofs are and how incredibly helpful they can be. You need a holistic approach and “interdisciplinary team” to achieve that end. Emphasizing the efficiency of green roofs would not only lead to better initiatives and programs but would also eventually drive down the costs of adopting green roofs. Once something becomes more common, prices to supply or produce something decline tremendously (I think that’s how money works). Furthermore, I like what Aaron said regarding tenants pressuring landlords or the government pressuring companies. If we were to enforce certain rules on landowners, I think that would be the most advantageous.
I decided to look up “green roofs in NYC” to do some research about how NYC is or could be implementing this idea. Certain websites say that some results with NYC green roofs have been unimpressive because the right plants aren’t being used to maximize environmental benefit; others say they need to be more diverse (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-manhattans-green-roofs-dont-work-how-to-fix-them/). Also, something cool I found out when reading was that apparently, if you use 50% or more of your rooftop to create green roofs, you can get a massive tax cut/credit for up to 100,000$.
