This reading was a nice change from City at the Water’s Edge. It was similar in nature to the services paper we read, but this time it was about green roofs. Before, I didn’t think that green roofs were anything but pretty to look at. I also had the impression that they were hard to maintain, and that the aesthetic pleasure it brought out was not worth the efforts to create them. This article taught me that green roofs are more than just pretty, but beneficial to the environment. The writer of the paper lists many different ways green roofs are like this and backs up his claims with numerous, detailed statistics, which I enjoyed. I also enjoyed how he included some downsides of having greenroofs. For example, in the section about how green roofs reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, the author also included how the amount of CO2 that goes into creating green roofs is greater than the amount it reduces . This created a wholesome view on the environmental benefits of green roofs, rather than a one-sided paper that advocates entirely for them.
Nonetheless, there are numerous benefits to green roofs, backed up with numerous statistics. One statistic that caught my eye was that 38% of carbon dioxide emissions come from buildings. This was shocking, because I know that these emissions are so bad for the environment, and living in New York City, big buildings are everywhere. I didn’t think that something so related to my life was such a big perpetrator for a huge problem. Another surprising statistic was the one that stated that if a Michigan State University’s 1.1km roof was green, it would save the equivalent of 661 vehicles in CO2. That is a lot of vehicles. I can’t really envision how big 1.1km is, but I know that 661 vehicles is a lot. And that’s all from a pretty green roof! It was quite shocking seeing the impact green roofs have quantified. The last statistic that really interested me was the one about a green roof that needed repair for the first time in 91 years, as opposed to the typical 15 years for a regular roof. This just shattered all expectations I had of green roofs. I would’ve thought that green roofs would be the high maintenance type, and regular roofs not. But it turned out to be the other way around.
Overall, this was a very interesting article that brought a scientific aspect to what was once just a pretty picture in my eyes. With all the benefits listed in this paper in mind, perhaps I’ll get a green roof one day myself.
