We know it is more important to watch what we eat, ensuring our food sources are organic and locally grown. We know that we should bike more and drive less, and turn off our lights when we are not home and take shorter showers. We know about the “green” movement. The practice of living green has emerged and bloomed in recent years, but there is one idea of particular note to our city: The Green Roof. The modern green rooftop, as we know it, originated in Germany at the turn of the 19th century and has come to be widely recognized in many large cities and economic hubs in North America such as New York, Chicago, Washington and Montreal.
One of my favourite postmodern artists, Freidensreich Hundertwasser, was also an architect who loudly expressed his ideas of green rooftops and his desire for plants and nature to play an integral part in our living spaces. He saw spontaneous vegetation, wooden floors, green rooftops and grazing animals on green spaces in our future, and to some extent those ideas have come to life here in Toronto!
There are some really cool designs up on our city rooftops and besides being aesthetically pleasing, these spaces also help reduce urban heat, manage storm water, enhance biodiversity, improve air quality and improve energy efficiency. In general, very few people look at their rooftops and an even fewer number utilize that space; however, it can be said that those in apartments are the ones who could really benefit from having their own “backyards”. Green rooftops are beautiful spaces that create more room, a place to relax out of sight, and ultimately benefit the environment. Luckily for us, the demand for such “green” spaces is quickly catching on – the Mountain Equipment Co-op Building on King St West has implemented a 10,000 sq foot green rooftop with exclusively Canadian native plants. While not public space, MEC’s roof is open to visitors during several annual festivals, such as Doors Open Toronto. With their mission to be a leading sustainable company, MEC also engages the community at their King St. location through volunteer-driven initiatives such as BikeFest, PaddleFest Toronto and eco-gift wrapping during the holiday season.
Toronto has not yet made the Green Rooftops Top Ten Cities list in North America but with so many environmentally sustainable innovations taking place, I am sure Toronto will be up there soon. Recently, the Eco-Roof Incentives Grant was passed to promote sustainable practises among existing and new businesses. Furthermore, Toronto won the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Sustainable Community Award for its green roof strategy. Kudos to Toronto for setting a “green” example in Canada. You can check out their progress here!
- Martina Marsic
