CHICAGO-The city is still very much the leader in one form of environmentally-friendly development. According to a recent survey by Toronto-based Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, Chicago is leading the way by a wide margin in the growth of green-roof projects, with more than 550,000 square feet in the Chicagoland area in 2009.
The organization this week released its 2010 industry survey, which indicated that the green roof industry has grown more than 16% since last year. However, Chicago’s efforts tower over the rest of the nation; as the next strongest green-roof installer is Washington, DC with just less than 200,000 square feet.
Jeffrey Bruce, chairman of the organization, said that the benefits of installing growing vegetation atop a new or refurbished building are numerous, such as better stormwater and air quality, and the reduction of heat build-up in downtown areas. “Policies in cities such as Chicago, New York, Washington, Portland, Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Toronto are making a difference,” he said in a statement.
Chicago has codes in place to offer incentives to builders who include green roof technology. Examples of uses in the city include the 25-acre roof on the Millennium Park garage, the roof on City Hall, and commercial projects such as the proposed roof on Testa Produce Inc.’s 91,000-square-foot warehouse at 4555 S. Racine Ave., and at the new 353 N. Clark St. building.
Steven Peck, founder and president of the organization, said that green roofs are installed in about 10 million square feet out of about the four billion square feet built in North America annually. The target is to get to 20% green roof coverage by 2020, he said in the statement.
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