The nursery industry’s contention that “Fall is for planting” took a new twist September 30 as staff members of the Westmoreland Conservation District and volunteers from local conservation organizations take to the roof of the GreenForge building on Donohoe Road in Greensburg to plant more than 6,000 sedums.

The effort will officially create Westmoreland County’s first-ever green roof.

GreenForge, a 25-year-old building once used as a commercial business incubator, is being rehabilitated with green materials, energy-conserving technologies, and best management practices.

The Conservation District plans to use the 23,000-square-foot building in its education and outreach program as a way to encourage regional builders, designers, and architects to use low-environmental-impact, and sustainable technologies in their buildings.

One of the leading-edge technologies to be demonstrated at GreenForge is green-roof technology. Two of GreenForge’s flat roofs, which have a combined surface area of 9,000 square feet, have been specially designed to be covered with living, green plants.

A green roof is a natural way to moderate building temperature (and so reduce the amount of energy needed to heat and cool the building), reduce stormwater runoff (and so alleviate pressure on the local sewer system), enhance air quality by absorbing and converting carbon dioxide and producing oxygen, insulate sound, and improve aesthetics.

In Allegheny County, Carnegie-Mellon University and Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens are among the places to have buildings with green roofs.

The team that is working to design, install, and guarantee GreenForge’s green roof includes TMR Roofing (Tuscano-Maher Roofing Inc.), the W.P. Hickman Company, and Green Roof Service LLC – all which worked on Carnegie-Mellon University’s Hammerschlag Hall green roof project.

GreenForge’s green roof began last spring with a brand new traditional roof system. This structural reinforcing was necessary because, in general, green roofs must support more load per square foot than conventional flat roofs. GreenForge’s green roof will weigh about 20 pounds per square foot.

Next, a 1/4”-thick, 100 percent recycled filter fabric was laid down on the roof, and topped with waffled, 50 percent-recycled plastic sheets called drainage plates. Water is retained within the pockets on the upper sides of the drainage plates; excess water spills over the edges and is carried off the roof.

The plates were topped with another, thinner layer of recycled filter fabric and about three inches of planting media – a blend of inorganic and organic soil components. The filter fabrics, drainage plates, and planning media all were manufactured according to strict German FLL standards, which are equivalent to the US ASTM standards, and installed in the past week. Green roofs have been extensively used in Germany for more than 25 years.

The final step in creating the green roof is installing the living plants. Nine types of sedums, one species of delosperma and one species of talinum will be planted. The 6,000 total individual plants were grown specifically for the GreenForge building by a greenhouse in Maryland.

The planting will be done by Westmoreland Conservation staff and volunteers, including members of the Botanical Society of Westmoreland County.

GreenForge is located on the Donohoe Road in Greensburg, about one mile from Westmoreland Mall. Partial funding for the green roof has been provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Energy Harvest Grant Program, and the West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund.

Link: Westmoreland County’s Conservation Campus Expands to GreenForge

9/29/2006