Members of DEP's Pollution Prevention/Energy Efficiency Roundtable recently toured a "green roof" installation in Lancaster to learn about its energy savings and stormwater benefits.

The roundtable is a group of businesses, organizations and institutions focused on partnering and sharing of information on innovative energy and pollution prevention technologies and ideas.

The group is affiliated with DEP's Northeast and Southcentral regions and the Pennsylvania Association of Environmental Professionals.

The focus of this quarterly roundtable meeting was on partnering efforts among the Lancaster County Planning Commission, Millersville University and several businesses in the Lancaster area that have installed green roofs for improved energy savings and stormwater management.

The group toured the vegetative roof at National Novelty Brush Co. Company president Rick Seavey said the roof is projected to last 75 years and that they have no need to put air conditioning in the company's warehouse due to 20 percent energy savings.

Stormwater runoff is also reduced up to 90 percent. Maintenance is minimal but the roof does have to be weeded!

Representatives from Millersville University and the Lancaster County Planning Commission discussed the partnership effort that helped make the project possible. A roundtable member from the Tobyhanna Army Depot also participated and presented their analytical data on energy savings realized as the result of the green roof system they are planning on expanding. DEP staff presented information on DEP's Energy Harvest Grant Program for innovative energy projects.

Other organizations represented on the tour included Wal Mart, Sanofi-Pasteur, PPL, Army and National Guard personnel from Fort Indiantown Gap, the Lancaster Housing and Redevelopment Authority, the Lancaster County Conservation District, Susquehanna Sustainable Business Network, Live Green, and the Sierra Club.

Wilkes University is hoping to move forward with additional green roof installations on its Wilkes-Barre campus using the Lancaster partnering project as an example.

For more information, visit the Pollution Prevention/Energy Efficiency Roundtable webpage.

Links: Penn State Puts Its Own Green Roof Technology To Work

Center for Green Roof Research

8/29/2008