There was an article in the Omaha World Herald today about the city’s first Green Roof. It’s going to be installed at a local joint library-school building, Saddlebrook. This project is being backed not only by advocates of the green roof movement, but also city and county officials, which is awesome because that’s the kind of support you need to really get a environmentally-friendly project like this off the ground (in more ways than one in this case!). This green roof will serve as a learning tool to determine the feasibility of other green roofs in our climate, so this is very potentially the first of many such projects to come.
The idea behind a green roof is that you replace traditional roofing materials with plants; in this case plants that require little to no maintenance. The plants absorb heat, aiding temperature control and energy use reduction within the building. They also absorb rainwater, lessening the amount of runoff that pollutes local water sources after storms. You can visit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities for more info. This group will be conducting a symposium in
I’m really excited about this news – ML pointed out to me that that Omaha is becoming a Cool City. Surely this will only make things better!
