Happy Green Roof Day! // All About Green Roofs

I’m still getting used to this whole summer thing. I mean, theoretically, it’s amazing because I can like get stuff done and stuff, but um having nothing to do makes it hard for me to feel like doing ANYTHING, and so… welp. Problems.

Heya people! ‘Tis Naomi, and today we’re talking ’bout green roofs (as I promised we would in Friday’s post – look at me, keeping my promises!). I was actually really surprised that I had never written a post on green roofs before, so I did a search on it multiple times… but apparently I’ve never really talked about it before. So, uh, here you go!

Green roofs are basically gardens planted on top of flat-roofed buildings. There’s a lot of layers under and each of them does SOMETHING to keep the plants alive, keep roots manageable, keep water in the right places, or all of the above.

Well, green roofs provide a whole bunch of benefits, but this is a climate change blog, so I’ll focus on the three things they do to help fight climate change. And what are those three things? Well.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

The first thing is that a green roof, being a green roof, has plants, and those plants, being plants, go through photosynthesis. And if you weren’t aware, when plants go through photosynthesis (so they can, like, make food and stuff), they take carbon in and turn it into oxygen. And, boom, you help climate change. MAYYYBE you don’t make the biggest difference in the whole world, but you make a difference. Woo-hoo!

The second thing is that a green roof makes it so less energy is needed to heat/cool a building. It both provides insulation (wich keeps said building warm), and makes it cooler (because those black roofs are hot and make the building hot and.. that’s not good). And less energy means less greenhouse gases being created to create that energy, so yay!

Photo by Alireza Kaviani on Pexels.com

And the final thing is that a green roof helps the roof last longer. The national park service says that a green roof can last up to twice as long as a normal one. And the less repairs are needed, the less materials and machines are needed. And materials and machines aren’t good for our earth either. So ta-da!

“Green Roofs.” Www.gsa.gov, http://www.gsa.gov/governmentwide-initiatives/federal-highperformance-green-buildings/resource-library/integrative-strategies/green-roofs.

National Park Service. “Green Roof Benefits—Technical Preservation Services, National Park Service.” Nps.gov, 2019, http://www.nps.gov/tps/sustainability/new-technology/green-roofs/benefits.htm.

—. “What Is a Green Roof—Technical Preservation Services, National Park Service.” Nps.gov, 2019, http://www.nps.gov/tps/sustainability/new-technology/green-roofs/define.htm.

And that’s that! I hope you learned a good bit about green roofs from this post and happy green roof, eyewear, yo-yo, Russian language, drive-in movie, and gardening exercise day!

Yes, I decided on a wim to make a new sign-off. Thoughts?