3 Reasons to Consider a Garden Roof

Believe it or not, your commercial or industrial roof can be more than just a roof; it can be a place of beauty, growth, and rejuvenation.

Chicago is one of the leaders in garden roofing as the city has developed hundreds of rooftop gardens reducing energy costs, lowering temperatures, and producing food. Yes, we have proven that garden roofs can provide nourishment while also beautifying the sky.

Still unsure? Here are three reasons why transforming your roof into a garden roof can provide a number of valuable advantages—for your building, the environment, and your bottom line.

What Is a Garden Roof?

In a city with limited options for greenery, businesses and homeowners have begun to look up.

What that means is instead of having a traditional roof, people are designing their roofs with greenery in mind. Plants, trees, even crops have popped up on all types of Chicago rooftops.

These are called green roofs, which “is a vegetative layer grown on a rooftop.” There are over 500 green rooftops and 13 rooftop farms in Chicago including the famous City Hall Rooftop Garden.

The City Hall Rooftop Garden boasts 20,000 plants of more than 150 species, including shrubs, vines, and two trees.

If adding more beauty to our city isn’t enough, a garden roof “improves air quality, conserves energy, reduces stormwater runoff and helps lessen the urban heat island effect.” Plus it reduces energy for air conditioning based on its cooling abilities.

Looking to replace your roof, or improve it? Why not consider a garden roof.

3 Reasons to Consider a Garden Roof

Throughout Chicago, commercial and industrial roofing companies have been designing, developing, and producing garden roofs not only because they look nice and draw a crowd, but because there are tangible environmental and financial benefits as well.

Here are three of the best reasons to consider a garden roof.

1. A garden roof provides valuable green space.

From a small space with potted plants or a large, expansive space with trees and grass, a garden roof is often a welcome addition to buildings, especially in areas where green space is otherwise limited.

Locations such as the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum provides savannah and meadow plants as well as a beautiful view of the Chicago Skyline on their garden roof.

For a roof-to-table experience, Homestead on the Roof offers hungry Chicagoans an opportunity to eat freshly farmed food courtesy of their rooftop garden.

A school can install a garden roof to provide students with hands-on experience with plant life for a biology class. Or a rooftop social space with chairs, tables, and shade trees can offer a lovely respite for building residents.

All you need is a little ingenuity and the right roofing company to turn your roof into an energy-saving, environmentally-friendly, green space.

2. A garden roof is good for the environment.

Due to their high concentrations of buildings in smaller spaces, cities often experience something called an “urban heat island,” in which elevated summer temperatures rise even higher than those in surrounding suburban areas.

This leads to higher demand for air conditioning in urban buildings, which increases greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

A garden roof’s vegetative layer uses the process of evapotranspiration to remove heat from the air around the building, thus reducing the temperature and the demand for air conditioning.

According to research from the National Research Council of Canada, “a six-inch extensive green roof can reduce summer energy demands by more than 75 percent.” Because of the lowered energy demands, your green roof helps reduce greenhouse emissions and overall positively affects the environment.

A garden roof can also improve stormwater management. In the summer, garden roofs retain “90 percent of the precipitation that falls on them and up to 40 percent in the winter.” That’s massive when looking to avoid flooding and pollution as a result of rainwater.

Lastly, a green roof provides shade to help cool the roof. Cooling the roof lowers the temperature of the building, thus reducing air conditioning energy and lowering emissions.

For the environmentally friendly, a garden roof is the best option available.

3. A garden roof can save you money.

A garden roof’s process of evapotranspiration reduces the surrounding temperatures, which cools your building. And as we said above, that can lower your air conditioning energy usage by up to 75%.

Because of that, the garden roof also reduces your air-conditioning bill.

In colder months, a garden roof provides additional insulation that can help maintain the interior temperature of the building, saving you money on heating costs.

Since “plants, shrubs, and grass atop select urban structures, these units become more naturally insulated from the elements.” This natural insulation reduces your natural fuel costs greatly.

It’s also important to note that green roofs deteriorate more slowly. Because they deteriorate slower, you’ll save money in the long term on repairs and roof replacements.

If saving money is one of your business’s goals this year, think about replacing your commercial roof with a garden roof to reduce energy costs.

Ready to save money and protect the environment? Call Ridgeworth Roofing today to chat about garden roof installation.

Whatever your reason for installing a garden roof—an inviting social space, fresh produce, eco-friendly practices, reduced building costs—you’re sure to reap valuable benefits.

Considering a green roofing option for your building? From garden roofs to reflective roofing and solar panels, Ridgeworth Roofing has your solution. Our experts have the experience you need to make an informed decision. Give Ridgeworth Roofing a call today.