Green Roofs on Commercial Buildings
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/20/AR2007092002644.html?hpid=topnews
Topping Off, for the Environment
By Miranda S. Spivack
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 21, 2007; B01
Frank Mondell and Jerry Williamson, successful Montgomery County developers, were beaming during a recent rooftop celebration for their new office building in Germantown. Their pride and joy? Small, unremarkable plants that will soon carpet the roof and provide a way to capture and filter rainwater.
Mondell and Williamson aren't your typical tree-huggers. But the tiny forest of sedum plants that they hope takes root alongside the bulky air-conditioning unit and ventilation chimneys will form the basis of the requisite storm water management system. The cost, they said, was relatively minimal. The benefits, they hope, will be immense.
"It was the right thing to do," Mondell said, as he gazed at the paved-over vista that includes a gas station, a couple of shopping centers, and several lanes of traffic along Route 118 and the nearby interstate. The neighborhood, like many parts of northern Montgomery, no longer has many trees or green spaces, which soak up and filter rain and snowmelt before the water flows into local rivers and streams.
Mondell and Williamson, the first to get a "green" roof approved by Montgomery's storm water regulators, are enthusiastic converts to a growing movement of builders, government officials and environmentalists who see such low-tech methods as relatively simple and low-cost ways to improve air and water quality.
They do get something more tangible than just satisfaction from the deal: Montgomery County, whose permitting office asked them to try out the green roof, waived a $75,000 fee for failure to install the more typical storm water management system.
To get builders to use the environmentally friendly systems, many local governments are mulling tax breaks and offering the chance to build more densely. Although data is scarce, the planted roof might, in the long run, save builders money by allowing them to avoid adding holding ponds or underground filtering tanks and to use those spaces more profitably.
The green roof can offer many benefits. The plants -- and the dirt and gravel that hold them -- filter rainwater and some of its pollutants. The plants produce oxygen that can help clean the air. They could help reduce the building's heating and cooling costs, acting as a form of insulation. And they could lessen the "heat island effect," in which buildings warm up so much that they heat the surroundings.
"The side benefits are what we are all excited about," said Richard Gee, a senior staff member in Montgomery's permitting office who worked closely with Mondell and Williamson as they planned the building, just off Interstate 270.
The low-tech green roofs have been embraced in Europe, where rooftop gardens are a tradition. But they have not caught on in the United States.
In the Washington area, about two dozen public and private office buildings have green roofs. Local governments have begun advocating for them as one of several methods to bring the region into compliance with federal clean air and water regulations.
Fairfax County officials are considering incentives for builders who use environmentally sensitive methods. In Arlington County, developers can build more densely if they follow certain precepts of green construction.
In the District, several green roofs are in the works as part of an agreement reached in a lawsuit seeking to resolve a long-standing problem with sewage overflows.
As in many older cities, the District's storm and sanitary sewers run together. When they overflow, raw sewage can get into the local drinking water supply, increasing purification costs.
Years of runoff from suburban development, officials said, have forced the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission to consider spending more than $20 million to install new pipes in the Potomac to obtain cleaner water farther from the Maryland shoreline. Excess runoff containing silt and other pollutants has clogged the shore near the pipes that draw drinking water from the Potomac.
In the Chesapeake Bay, storm water runoff is widely viewed as the fastest-growing source of excessive nitrogen and phosphorous levels that harm aquatic life and the food they rely on to survive.
Pete Johnson, who is managing seven green roof projects in the District for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the potential benefits to builders are huge.
"If you are building a 10-story office building in downtown Washington, sometimes putting on a green roof is the easiest thing to do," he said. "A green roof is a self-maintenance system. You don't have to do much of anything once it gets established."
The American Society of Landscape Architects, which installed a green roof on its building on I Street in Chinatown 18 months ago, has found that the roof is an excellent insulator. "It got so cold in the summer that some staff members were using space heaters," said spokesman Jim Lapides. Preliminary findings also suggest the roof gets rid of some impurities in rainwater, he said.
But persuading officials to take such steps has been difficult, said Diane Cameron, a water quality consultant. Cameron, a member of Stormwater Partners, a Maryland coalition, is trying to encourage state and local governments to draw up tougher standards.
Among the ideas the group is promoting are green roofs, "rain gardens" with certain types of plants that soak up and filter rainwater, porous pavement for roads and sidewalks to filter water, and more green space in new developments.
The federal storm water permits for Montgomery and Frederick counties are up for renewal, and coalition officials hope to use the review process to win changes.
The group is also waiting for the Maryland Department of the Environment to issue regulations that stem from a new law calling for more environmentally friendly construction standards.
Like many in the building industry, Mondell would be happier if the government allowed him to try out new systems voluntarily.
"We realized that if we did a green roof and worked with the county, we were almost positive it was going to cost us more money," he said. "But we also knew it wasn't going to send us to the poorhouse."
The extra cost turned out to be about $350,000, he said.
Johnson said setting up government-sponsored incentives can help boost the use of green technology. But only widespread use, he said, will benefit the region's air and water quality.
"You need to do it on a large scale. You can't just do one building here and one building there and expect it to have a big effect."
Topping Off, for the Environment
By Miranda S. Spivack
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 21, 2007; B01
Frank Mondell and Jerry Williamson, successful Montgomery County developers, were beaming during a recent rooftop celebration for their new office building in Germantown. Their pride and joy? Small, unremarkable plants that will soon carpet the roof and provide a way to capture and filter rainwater.
Mondell and Williamson aren't your typical tree-huggers. But the tiny forest of sedum plants that they hope takes root alongside the bulky air-conditioning unit and ventilation chimneys will form the basis of the requisite storm water management system. The cost, they said, was relatively minimal. The benefits, they hope, will be immense.
"It was the right thing to do," Mondell said, as he gazed at the paved-over vista that includes a gas station, a couple of shopping centers, and several lanes of traffic along Route 118 and the nearby interstate. The neighborhood, like many parts of northern Montgomery, no longer has many trees or green spaces, which soak up and filter rain and snowmelt before the water flows into local rivers and streams.
Mondell and Williamson, the first to get a "green" roof approved by Montgomery's storm water regulators, are enthusiastic converts to a growing movement of builders, government officials and environmentalists who see such low-tech methods as relatively simple and low-cost ways to improve air and water quality.
They do get something more tangible than just satisfaction from the deal: Montgomery County, whose permitting office asked them to try out the green roof, waived a $75,000 fee for failure to install the more typical storm water management system.
To get builders to use the environmentally friendly systems, many local governments are mulling tax breaks and offering the chance to build more densely. Although data is scarce, the planted roof might, in the long run, save builders money by allowing them to avoid adding holding ponds or underground filtering tanks and to use those spaces more profitably.
The green roof can offer many benefits. The plants -- and the dirt and gravel that hold them -- filter rainwater and some of its pollutants. The plants produce oxygen that can help clean the air. They could help reduce the building's heating and cooling costs, acting as a form of insulation. And they could lessen the "heat island effect," in which buildings warm up so much that they heat the surroundings.
"The side benefits are what we are all excited about," said Richard Gee, a senior staff member in Montgomery's permitting office who worked closely with Mondell and Williamson as they planned the building, just off Interstate 270.
The low-tech green roofs have been embraced in Europe, where rooftop gardens are a tradition. But they have not caught on in the United States.
In the Washington area, about two dozen public and private office buildings have green roofs. Local governments have begun advocating for them as one of several methods to bring the region into compliance with federal clean air and water regulations.
Fairfax County officials are considering incentives for builders who use environmentally sensitive methods. In Arlington County, developers can build more densely if they follow certain precepts of green construction.
In the District, several green roofs are in the works as part of an agreement reached in a lawsuit seeking to resolve a long-standing problem with sewage overflows.
As in many older cities, the District's storm and sanitary sewers run together. When they overflow, raw sewage can get into the local drinking water supply, increasing purification costs.
Years of runoff from suburban development, officials said, have forced the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission to consider spending more than $20 million to install new pipes in the Potomac to obtain cleaner water farther from the Maryland shoreline. Excess runoff containing silt and other pollutants has clogged the shore near the pipes that draw drinking water from the Potomac.
In the Chesapeake Bay, storm water runoff is widely viewed as the fastest-growing source of excessive nitrogen and phosphorous levels that harm aquatic life and the food they rely on to survive.
Pete Johnson, who is managing seven green roof projects in the District for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the potential benefits to builders are huge.
"If you are building a 10-story office building in downtown Washington, sometimes putting on a green roof is the easiest thing to do," he said. "A green roof is a self-maintenance system. You don't have to do much of anything once it gets established."
The American Society of Landscape Architects, which installed a green roof on its building on I Street in Chinatown 18 months ago, has found that the roof is an excellent insulator. "It got so cold in the summer that some staff members were using space heaters," said spokesman Jim Lapides. Preliminary findings also suggest the roof gets rid of some impurities in rainwater, he said.
But persuading officials to take such steps has been difficult, said Diane Cameron, a water quality consultant. Cameron, a member of Stormwater Partners, a Maryland coalition, is trying to encourage state and local governments to draw up tougher standards.
Among the ideas the group is promoting are green roofs, "rain gardens" with certain types of plants that soak up and filter rainwater, porous pavement for roads and sidewalks to filter water, and more green space in new developments.
The federal storm water permits for Montgomery and Frederick counties are up for renewal, and coalition officials hope to use the review process to win changes.
The group is also waiting for the Maryland Department of the Environment to issue regulations that stem from a new law calling for more environmentally friendly construction standards.
Like many in the building industry, Mondell would be happier if the government allowed him to try out new systems voluntarily.
"We realized that if we did a green roof and worked with the county, we were almost positive it was going to cost us more money," he said. "But we also knew it wasn't going to send us to the poorhouse."
The extra cost turned out to be about $350,000, he said.
Johnson said setting up government-sponsored incentives can help boost the use of green technology. But only widespread use, he said, will benefit the region's air and water quality.
"You need to do it on a large scale. You can't just do one building here and one building there and expect it to have a big effect."