Small is Beautiful on World Green Roof Day

#WGRD2020 Saturday 6 June, 2020

NOT ONLY GRAND green roofs on commercial building rooftops, but small roof spaces  – from bike sheds to bus stops, kitchen extensions to home offices – make perfect homes for beautiful green roofs and industry experts supporting this year’s World Green Roof Day on Saturday 6 June are encouraging everyone to look out of their windows and identify flat roofs ripe for transformation.

Green Roof benefits

Green roofs large and small are proven to provide practical benefits including improving air quality, cooling urban environments, managing heavy rainfall, insulating buildings and even boosting the mental well-being of those looking out on to them.

And that’s in addition to the many species of birds and insects that intensive and extensive green roofs support. For many this is most notably pollinators; a study of green roofs in London recorded more than 20 species of bees foraging on them.

World Green Roof Day (#WGRD2020), the brainchild of Chris Bridgman of Milton-Keynes commercial landscaper Bridgman & Bridgman, is being delivered by London-based green roof expert Dusty Gedge. He said: “By celebrating green roofs and the environmental benefits they provide we hope that cities across the globe, in all continents and climate zones, see the value of greening roofs and act to ensure their uptake. WGRD allows us to celebrate green roofs and the benefits they bring to people and nature.”

Dusty Gedge

Green Roof Organisation

WGRD will also see the formal launch of the Green Roof Organisation (GRO), a UK trade body responsible for the green roof code of practice and now a legal entity. Dusty, a founding member who sits on the GRO board, added: “We hope that companies and organisations involved in green roofs in the UK who haven’t joined GRO as yet, do so. We can lobby to ensure that green roofs become mainstream across the whole of the UK.”

GRO member Wallbarn, a British manufacturer of modular green roof solutions, is supporting WGRD, as Wallbarn Director Julian Thurbin explained: “The event is a great opportunity to sing the praises of green roofs and raise awareness of their many environmental benefits. And it’s perfect timing given that wildflower and sedum roofs are now starting to bloom, attracting pollinators such as bees and butterflies and a whole host of other bugs. They provide beautiful, vibrant, natural habitats equally suited to large and small roof areas.

“Almost any flat roof can be greened. Installation has been made easier and we should be thinking of both small roof spaces, as well as large masterplans, as targets for green roofs. Given the ease with which you can convert an unloved flat roof into a mini wildlife haven it makes total sense to identify roofs around the country for greening. If just a percentage of the millions of square metres of roof space was converted into a living roof it would have a major impact,” said Julian.

UK Green Roof Facts

• 42% of the total UK green roof market is in London (2016 figures)
• The total area of green roofs in the Greater London Area was 1.5 million m2 (0.17m2 of green roof per inhabitant) (2017 figures)
• In the Central Activity Zone (CAZ) green roofs covered 290,000m2 (1.26m2 of green roof per inhabitant) (2017 figures)