July 29, 2009
Letter to the Editor
Green Roof By-law in Toronto
Re: Fire safety issue raised for green roofs, DCN July 13, 2009
In my opinion, the way Toronto approaches its green roof policy is not good for the green roof industry and not good for the image of Toronto.
The green roof bylaw will challenge building owners, builders, construction companies, developers and architects to find ways around installing a mandatory green roof. We are humans and they should know us better.
I am advocating for a bylaw, which encourages people to invest their energy in making green roofs popular, standardized and affordable.
I have a lot of experience with green roofs, from the time I’ve spent in Germany cities over the last 30 years.
The most successful system I found was in Stuttgart.
The city started to invest in green roofs on city-owned buildings.
In 1988, I installed more than 2,000,000 square feet of such roofs on schools, kindergartens and other city-owned structures.
After five years of experience, they knew where, how, what and when to implement a bylaw.
With the installation of millions of square foot of green roofs, the city “accidently” dropped the costs of green roof by more than 25 per cent and made it affordable for building owners to add a green roof.
I hope other cities will learn from Toronto ‘s rush to pass a bylaw.
As a green roof expert, I am excited to learn more about Toronto’s green roof initiative.
I hope there aren’t any negative impacts for the environment or even the green roof industry from this hastily drawn up bylaw.
Jörg Breuning
Green Roof Service LLC
Forest Hill, Maryland
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