Toronto, Canada – September 30, 2011 – Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) is pleased to announce that the City of Toronto’s award winning Green Roof Bylaw has already resulted in more than 1.2 million square feet (113,300 square meters) of new green space planned on new commercial, institutional, and multi-unit residential developments across the City. The Bylaw, which came into effect January 31, 2010, will generate an area of new green space larger than Queen's Park in Toronto! At no cost to citizens and taxpayers, the new green roofs will result in many public benefits that will be distributed throughout the City. The resulting public and private green roof benefits will include the following:

• More than 125 full time jobs related to manufacture, design, installation and maintenance.
• Reduction of more than 435,000 cubic feet (approx. 50 olympic size swimming pools) of stormwater each year that pollutes our rivers, lakes and beaches.
• Tangible reduction of the urban heat island effect, the artificial overheating of the city.
• Annual energy savings of over 1.5 million KWH for building owners.
• Improve air quality
• Extension of the waterproofing life expectancy which saves building owners money and reduces landfill waste.
• Aesthetic improvements and new recreational opportunities on accessible green roofs.
• Preservation of biodiversity, particularly birds, bees and other beneficial insects and plants.
• New opportunities for urban agriculture.

"During the first full year of the Bylaw we have seen a five-fold increase in LiveRoof Ontario’s labour force and a three-fold increase in production capacity and sales”, said Kees Govers, President, LiveRoof Ontario Inc., which manufactures modular green roof systems. “Toronto’s Green Roof Bylaw has brought about serious interest in green roofs from neighboring municipalities such as Mississauga, Hamilton, Vaughan, and Richmond Hill,” he added.

“Cities around the world have begun mandating green roofs on their new buildings because they turn largely wasted roof spaces into green spaces that generate multiple public and private benefits for building owners and citizens!” said Jeffrey L. Bruce, Chair, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. “Toronto’s leadership with the Green Roof Bylaw is helping law makers across North America develop green roof policies and programs. For example, in Devens Massachusetts they recently used the Toronto Bylaw to model their new green roof policy which includes a requirement for accredited Green Roof Professionals (GRPs) to work on green roof project teams,” he added.

Leading By Example: City of Toronto’s Newest Accessible Green Roof Park at City Hall

The new Toronto City Hall Podium Green Roof is a perfect example of how green roofs can improve aesthetics and produce recreational amenities out of previously dead roof areas. The podium roof, up until the creation of the green roof, was rarely used for public gatherings as it was too uncomfortably hot. The addition of this award winning green roof has created a new fully accessible park, right in downtown Toronto, at a fraction of the cost of having to buy and set aside land.

Photos courtesy of LiveRoof Ontario Inc. Click for hi-res versions.

What If - Looking Ten Years Ahead!

Image courtesy of Grace Yang, University of Toronto; Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. Click for hi-res version.

The Green Roof Bylaw will have a profound long-term positive impact on the health and sustainability of the residents of the City of Toronto.

“If we continue to implement green roofs in Toronto at this rate, we can begin to see significant annual impact on energy consumption and a reduction in the urban heat island effect,” said Steven W. Peck, Founder and President, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. “For example, Environment Canada modeling has demonstrated that an area covered by 10 million square feet of green roofs, the size of 10 Queens Parks, would reduce temperatures in that area by 1 to 2 degrees centigrade and will help save tens of millions in energy costs by reducing the peak load demand in Toronto! Environment Canada scientists have estimated that the energy savings on heating and cooling generated by 10 million square feet of green roofs in Toronto are over 15 million KWH, the equivalent of running 29,593 60 Watt light bulbs year-round,” he added. “Stormwater run-off reductions also increase to well over 3.6 million cubic feet annually.”

Students from the University of Toronto, Grace Yang, Abigail Feniza and Helen Huang, developed the series of images opposite to portray the positive effect of 10 years of green roof development, focused on downtown Toronto. These green roofs would likely be spread across new developments throughout the City.

“The Green Roof Bylaw will make Toronto the leader, for the first time, for the most green roofs installed by a major city/region in North America,” said Steven Peck. “Last year Toronto was second, but I am confident that it will soon be in first place,” he added (see graph below).

Data Courtesy of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities' Annual Market Survey

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is proud to be organizing a green roof and wall tour on the afternoon of Friday, October 8, 2011 as part of Greenbuild in Toronto. Come by and visit us at booth T-6 in South Building of the Trade Expo. Green Roof Professional (GRP) training will be in Toronto, October 8-11, 2011.

Media Contacts: Steven W. Peck, Founder and President, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (416) 971-4494 ext. 233, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Background: The Toronto Green Roof Bylaw establishes minimum construction standards that govern the development of all of the green roofs within the City, and requires certain new buildings to implement green roofs. However, the Bylaw allows building owners to opt out of the green roof requirements by paying a fee which is used to invest in incentives for green roof development among existing building owners. For more information about Toronto’s Green Roof Bylaw go to: http://www.toronto.ca/greenroofs/overview.htm.

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is a membership-based industry association whose mission is to develop the green roof and wall industry in North America. www.greenroofs.org. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities recently launched the Living Architecture Academy, an online learning center which contains conference proceedings, technical papers, presentations synched to audio, and professional training courses. See www.grhc.sclivelearningcenter.com/ for details. Our 9th Annual CitiesAlive Green Roof and Wall Conference will be held in Philadelphia Nov. 30-Dec 3, 2011. www.citiesalive.org. Media passes available.