New Law Passed In France:ALL New Rooftops Must Be Covered With Plants Or Solar Panels

[GennGreymane]

http://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/1...r-Solar-Panels

"Green roofs" have an isolating effect which helps to reduce the amount of energy needed to heat a building during the winter or cool it in the summer. They are capable of retaining rainwater and reducing problems with runoff, and also offer birds a place to call home in the urban jungle.

French environmental activists originally wanted to pass a law that would make the green roofs cover the entire surface of all new roofs. However, partially covered roofs make for a great start, and are still a huge step in the right direction.

Some say the law that was passed is actually better, as it gives the business owners a chance to install solar panels to help provide the buildings with renewable energy, thereby leaving even less of a footprint.

Green roofs are already very popular in Germany and Australia, as well as Toronto.

5 Benefits of Green Roofs

1. Adding natural beauty and major aesthetic improvement to buildings, which in turn increases the investment opportunity.

2. Helping contribute to landfill diversion by prolonging the life of waterproofing membranes, using recycled materials, and prolonging the service of heating, ventilation, and HVAC systems through decreased use.

3. Green roofs assist with storm water management because water is stored by the substrate, then taken up by plants, and thus returned to the atmosphere through transpiration and evaporation. They also retain rainwater and moderate the temperature of the water and act as natural filters for the water that does run off. They delay the time at which runoff occurs, which results in decreased stress on sewer systems during peak periods.

4. The plants on green roofs do a great job of capturing airborne pollutants and other atmospheric deposition. They can also filter noxious gasses.

5. They open up new areas for community gardens, commercial and recreational space in busy cities where this space is generally quite limited.

France is definitely on the right track, but it should be a mandate that all new buildings being built in North America, and even worldwide, adopt this amazing idea to reap all of the potential benefits!


Read more at http://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/1...avRBprIL44M.99

[Deleted]

How many of your 21,967 posts are copy+paste articles from news websites?

At least give some of your own input or something instead of just slapping an article on off-topic.

[GennGreymane]

How many of your 21,967 posts are copy+paste articles from news websites?

At least give some of your own input or something instead of just slapping an article on off-topic.

Why should my opinion be greater than anyone else's? I create a conversation starter. I don't want people to skip the article and just go straight to my opinion to either support and deny. Also if this was to go further then a few pages and the conversation switches. I don't want new posters just restarting the conversation by requoting me rather than reading the thread and gaining where the thread is that way. We see that in threads all the time, 10 pages later and people are still directly quoting the OP even though we have moved on in discussion.

[Osmeric]

Excerpting from news sites is a perfectly cromulent posting style.

[Rotted]

It's a good idea on paper

But I'd be severely concerned about one thing

Finance, is the government part covering it, or all of it or doing nothing? Or is there a money back system in place like we have in the UK for solar?

[Karrotlord]

This is never going to happen in the US is it? And I agree about the financing. If not done properly it could be a huge burden.

[Revi]

I think that's a great idea. Would be very in favor of the same thing here.

[Mellomania]

I think that's a great idea. Would be very in favor of the same thing here.

Implying we get sunny weather D:

[Deleted]

It's a good idea on paper

But I'd be severely concerned about one thing

Finance, is the government part covering it, or all of it or doing nothing? Or is there a money back system in place like we have in the UK for solar?

It's only new build properties, so it'll be part of the building costs and have a pretty negligible effect on end price.

The U.K. Funding System for private property energy efficiency is pretty awesome though.

[Beazy]

If the lawmakers pay for it, its a good idea TBH. Taxes spent correctly.

[Trassk]

Like all said, if the government want to pay for it, and reduce the energy cost to homes with it, then good.

If they demand people pay for it out of their own pocket or face prosecution for not doing so, then fuck them.

[Reeve]

Green roofs can look nice when done well, but I suspect it's hard to maintain the nice looking ones. A lot of the google images of green roofs I'm looking like are more like this:



Which just looks like someone has abandoned the home and let nature reclaim it. It looks pretty terrible.

[George Costanza]

Is mmo-c a news site as well?

[Reeve]

Is mmo-c a news site as well?

It's a discussion site, and current events are part of that discussion. Genn Greymane has a long held history of seeking out interesting articles for discussion, and many of us love his posting profile.

[Deleted]

never thought about it, its actually a really cool idea..

Not a fan of imposing things by law though.. still.. it works.

- - - Updated - - -

Green roofs can look nice when done well, but I suspect it's hard to maintain the nice looking ones. A lot of the google images of green roofs I'm looking like are more like this:



Which just looks like someone has abandoned the home and let nature reclaim it. It looks pretty terrible.

how does that look terrible, it looks homely..

or maybe like a hobbits home

[Reeve]

never thought about it, its actually a really cool idea..

Not a fan of imposing things by law though.. still.. it works.

- - - Updated - - -



how does that look terrible, it looks homely..

or maybe like a hobbits home

It looks overgrown.

[Blade Wolf]

My old school tried green roofs a long time ago... Was a huge fucking disaster. They had to rebuild the roof from scratch.

[Cthulhu 2020]

It looks overgrown.

Overgrown would be if stuff was growing on the walls themselves and parts of the house were broken or breaking apart because of foliage. As it is, they've just done more than plant only grass and went with some shrubs as well.

Not to say that green roofs don't have the potential to become overgrown and are much quicker to look overgrown when not maintained.

- - - Updated - - -

My old school tried green roofs a long time ago... Was a huge fucking disaster. They had to rebuild the roof from scratch.

Sounds like they did it wrong. The elementary school near where I grew up had about half the school with green roofs, and one of the buildings was entirely covered except for one face. It lasted 50 years, and the only reason they're rebuilding it now is because it had just gotten really old and outdated as a teaching facility.

Several of the buildings on the uni where I went had green roofs, and they were favorite places to throw department parties.

[Revi]

Green roofs can look nice when done well, but I suspect it's hard to maintain the nice looking ones. A lot of the google images of green roofs I'm looking like are more like this:



Which just looks like someone has abandoned the home and let nature reclaim it. It looks pretty terrible.

I actually think that looks really nice. Of course it could be kept better, but I'd much prefer if all houses looked like that. Around here where we have a lot of houses rather than big block buildings, it would combined massively increase the areal of green around here. Fresher air, more animals, positive influence on psyche (if you believe the idea that exposure to nature has a positive impact people).

[Feali]

Sounds like a great idea.