Speakers

Dr. Nigel Dunnett
Director of The Green Roof Centre, Sheffield, UK.

Creative ecology: green roofs, nature and people

Green roofs work everywhere: from the smallest domestic scale through to the largest corporate buildings. Through green roofs, people engage with nature. This presentation focuses on that engagement, and takes an international overview of creative approaches to integrating buildings and biodiversity. It is suggested that we can liberate ourselves from old arguments and discussions about intensive or extensive, natives or non-natives and take a more cosmopolitan and inclusive view of ecology and sustainability – case studies and examples from the city of Sheffield UK will show how a coordinated strategy between city authorities, researchers, wildlife agencies and the public can rapidly promote green roof infrastructure. Emphasis is placed on engaging with the next generation through schools. Nigel also has a particular interest in green roofs on garden buildings and other small applications and will show examples from his own home garden and others.

Bio
Dr Nigel Dunnett is Director of The Green Roof Centre, Sheffield, UK, and Reader in Urban Horticulture in the Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield. He has a background in botany, horticulture and ecology. His research work and teaching combines all these disciplines, with particular focus on the design, implementation and management of naturalistic alternatives to conventional landscape plantings, and in novel approaches to integrating biodiversity and vegetation on and around buildings. He initiated the first large-scale research programme into green roofs in the UK and has a particular interest in creative planting for green roofs: he consults regularly on such projects. Books include: Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls (2004, Timber Press); Rain Gardens: sustainable management of water in the garden and designed landscape (2007, Timber Press) and The Dynamic Landscape; ecology, design and management of naturalistic urban planting (Taylor & Francis 2004). He writes regularly on gardening and horticultural matters in a wide range of publications and speaks regularly at conferences and meetings on green roof topics.

Jörg Breuning
Green Roof Service, LLC

Best Practices for Green Roofs: 30 Years of Advanced Green Roof Technology

In one country on this world and with the size of Texas you find 75 square miles of green roofs. This is 10 square miles more than the entire District of Columbia. With additional 4 square miles of green roofs every year, Germany is ahead of the curve. Although labour costs are much higher in Germany the cost for a functional extensive green roof is approximately 10 times less than in America. Learn from the past, discover the unique business opportunities and share the vision of greening America.

Bio
Jörg Breuning is currently the Principal and Co-Owner of Green Roof Service LLC in the USA, responsible for designing and specifying of green roof projects. Jörg is also responsible for promoting state of the art technology to professionals and representing and introducing new installing equipment, technologies and techniques for the green roof industry.

Jörg actively speaks at various seminars, conferences and provides hands-on traning for landscape or roofing companies. He also operates guided Greenroof tours in Germany.

Jörg is an approved and certified Horticultural Technician from the State Horticultural Technical School at University Hohenheim, one of the oldest horticultural Universities in the world.

Steven W. Peck
Founder and President, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities – North America Inc.

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities: What We Do

I'll be providing an overview of North American efforts to develop the industry and the potential role of the Botanical Garden to contribute to the effort. I'll touch on the size and composition of the industry, the state of public policy support and research efforts that are underway. I'll also give a short overview of the work that GRHC is doing in support of the industry.

Bio
Steven Peck has spent the past 15 years conducting public policy research in the fields of technology innovation and diffusion, and urban sustainability.

In 1999 he co-authored a major federal government report on barriers to green roof technology diffusion called “Green Backs for Green Roofs” – which got him started in the green roof business. Mr. Peck has since written numerous articles on green roof infrastructure and is currently heading up the membership based not-for-profit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities industry association, which has over 4,000 members across North America. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities lobbies for public green roof investment, provides training for green roof design professionals, runs the Green Roof Awards of Excellence, and holds a major international conference each year with the sixth, 2008 conference being held in Baltimore, Maryland from April 30-May 2.

He is the editor of the “Green Roof Infrastructure Monitor”, a semi-annual publication that profiles green roof developments and research in North America and Europe and has implemented several green roofs in Toronto Canada. He enjoys an honours B.A. from McGill University in Political Science and Economics.

Rick Buist
Landsource Organix Ltd.

Horticulture and the Rooftop Environment

In this presentation, horticulturist Rick Buist will recount some of his experience as one of Canada’s leading green roof installers. Rick will talk about bridging the gap between the two very different areas of plant sciences and building sciences. Rick will explore some of the common assumptions made by the design community regarding the growth habits of plantings when put in a roofing context.

He’ll also explain the choices available to maximize various performance criteria for green roofs.Finally, he will provide some guidance to design professionals to avoid costly mistakes when making component selections.

Bio
Rick Buist is president and principle of Landsource Organix Ltd., Canada’s leading green roof installation company. He is also president and principal of Bioroof Systems, an ecologically based green roof program with certified installers and suppliers throughout North America.

As a well-known horticulturist, Rick has been instrumental in the development of cutting edge green roof ecology as well as curriculum geared towards environmental horticulture. Rick has spent several years teaching environmental horticulture at one of the area’s leading colleges and continues teaching and getting involved in training at various levels. Rick is very active in the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Association as a Director of the Board, Chairman of the Corporate Members Board as well as Chairman of the Growing Medium Subcommittee.

A popular speaker, Rick has presented at the annual conferences of the US and Canadian Compost Councils, the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects, the Ontario Professional Planners Institute, symposiums for Green Roofs for Healthy Cities throughout North America and The Society for Professional Engineers. Rick is often requested to conduct training for firms associated with architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, ecological restoration and land planning.

His company has been involved with over 70 green roof projects including some of the most significant projects in North America.

Marie-Anne Boivin
Soprema Canada

Designing Green Roofs and Roof Gardens: How to Achieve our Objectives

The presentation will describe different green roofs and roof gardens in Canada which were designed and installed to achieve different objectives. The conception in green roofing involves a lot of different considerations, including targeting the main reason to do this green roof, our objectives and the existing constraints or limiting factors.

Examples of low maintenance extensive green roofs will be shown as well as light roof gardens and heavy intensive plantations. Pictures of non irrigated sowed or planted eco-roofs on old existing buildings will be presented as well as manicured landscaped areas on new structures. Finally some technical aspects will be illustrated with photos of construction sites in different provinces of Canada.

Bio
Marie-Anne Boivin is an agronomist who is actively promoting the creation of green spaces on the top of new and existing buildings as an integrated strategy for urban sustainable development. She holds a Masters Degree in Horticulture from Laval University, on plants’ adaptation to green roofs in a northern climate.

She has been working on the conception of green roofs and roof gardens with architects, landscape architects and engineers since 1996. She has been involved in the technical design of more than 250 green roofs and roof gardens in Canada including institutional, commercial and residential.

Mrs. Boivin is the coordinator of the development of Sopranature green roof system for Soprema Inc. since 1996. She actively presents on green roofing at different conferences and symposiums and collaborates at many research programs in universities, colleges and research institutes across Canada.

Ed Snodgrass
Emory Knoll Farms Inc.

Plants for Green Roofs

This talk will familiarize the audience on the special conditions associated with green roofs and their impact on plant selection. Several different design schemes will highlight design choices. Representative projects will be used to show real world applications of these design choices.

Bio
Ed Snodgrass is owner and president of Emory Knoll Farms Inc. and Green Roof Plants. Ed Snodgrass is a fifth generation farmer and nurseryman specializing in plants and horticultural consulting for green roofs. Emory Knoll Farms Inc. has supplied plants for over two million square feet of green roof on over 250 roofs in 25 states and the District of Columbia as well as green roofs in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.

Ed has lectured widely on green roofs at regional, national and international conferences.

Ed is a member of The Royal Horticulture Society, The American Horticultural Society, The Sedum Society, and The International Plant Propagators Society. Ed is on the board of The Maryland Nurserymen’s Association, and has a book called Green Roof Plants, A Planting and Resource Guide published by Timber Press.

Scott Wylie
Wytech Building Envelope Solutions Inc.

Bio
Scott Wylie has a Bachelor of Technology in Architectural Science from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and is Principal of Wytech Building Envelope Solutions Inc., a multi-diversified construction sales and marketing agency for the past 11 years.

Scott collaborated with Halsall Associates in an advisory role with the City of Toronto’s Green Building Standard. He has also been a contributing guest speaker for Green Roofs for a Healthy City at their National Conference in Boston and has presented numerous green roof updates to City Officials in Toronto, Markham, Sudbury, Simcoe County, Windsor, Peel Region, Brantford and the Quebec Provincial Government.

Mr. Wylie had advised on the vegetated roof design with Moryiama & Teshima Architects on Canada’s largest installed green roof to date - The Canadian War Museum.

Over the years Wytech has provided technical guidance on installed vegetated roofs, of various sizes and complexities throughout Southern Ontario, both Extensive and Intensive.

Scott is currently on the Toronto Construction Association’s Board of Directors. He is also Past President, Ontario Building Envelope Council and Sealant and Waterproofing Association.

Getting the Real Dirt on Vegetated Roofs

The construction industry has embraced the quantifiable and qualitative environmental benefits of green roofs. Equally important are the economical and community benefits these systems can provide. Yet a majority of roof systems marketed today provide little or no energy efficiency, stormwater retention or improved roof longevity as component manufacturers have hypothesized. The facts speak for themselves.

Because of the growing popularity of vegetated roofs, the industry is now experiencing a marketplace of components and assemblies with no proven track record. Manufacturers are selling products with warranties, not necessarily solutions to the water tightness or long term durability of sustaintainable roofs. In these circumstances, premature failures are inevitable, leaving design professionals and owners vulnerable to unmanageable replacement costs.

This topic summarizes terminology such as cavity wall versus face seal vegetated assemblies, storm water management considerations, designing for durability using the current systems marketed and the importance of a team approach for a successful, long term vegetated roof.

Douglas C. Fishburn
Fishburn Building Sciences Group Inc.

Bio
Acknowledged as an expert in his field, Doug has investigated numerous roofing, waterproofing and building envelope failures and appeared as an expert witness in many high profile litigation cases. Considered a leading authority on green roof waterproofing and design. He has authored and presented papers addressing green roof design and waterproofing issues for the NRC and RCI at numerous conferences throughout Canada and the US.

Douglas Fishburn is a recognized leader in drainage & waterproofing systems in green roof design throughout North America. He has written extensively on the subject, his innovative thinking has resulted in several patents while his ground-breaking design work is having a significant impact on the green roof community.

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE DESIGN AND INSTALLATION OF GREEN ROOFS: THE WATERPROOFING CHALLENGE

Over the last 40 or 50 years, roof landscaping has been used over parking decks and podiums to improve aesthetics and create market appeal for both commercial and residential buildings. Green roofs offer many operational, financial, environmental, and social benefits. These benefits can be short lived if the waterproofing assembly fails to provide its principal function: a waterproof environment.

The environment to which it is exposed, its design, method of construction, and frequency of maintenance can impact the durability of any waterproofing system. Improper design, poor construction practices, and lack of proper maintenance have been found to result in premature roof failure. There is no reason to think that such factors would have a different impact on green roof applications whether it is new construction or a retro-fit project. In order to mitigate the risk of failure and improve long-term performance, specific considerations must be paid to load requirements, slope and drainage, thermal performance, the design of the details, the waterproofing membrane, testing, and the requirements for maintenance.

This presentation focuses on some of the factors impacting on the design of waterproofing for green roofs, particularly with intensive green roofs, and suggests methods of design and construction that can help achieve long-term watertight service.

Terry McGlade
Perennial Gardens Corp.
& Gardens in the Sky

Green Roofs I Have Known and Loved

This session will provide information on the Toronto experience of green roof installation, on all aspects of residential green roof work to include retrofitting and new construction.

Bio
Terry is one of Canada’s best known greenroof experts. He has been designing and building gardens in the Toronto area since 1982. He created his first roof garden in 1985, and installed his first green roof in 1999. Since then Gardens in the Sky has built over 45 greenroofs and numerous roof gardens. The company has received many ‘Awards of Excellence’ from Landscape Ontario, a Toronto Urban Design award, and more. Twenty-five years of experience has made Terry a source for knowledge in many aspects of landscaping; he lectures frequently and is often the subject of television and magazine articles.

Stephen Noone
Senior Associate, New York
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

Green Roof for the American Society of Landscape Architects

The intent of the lecture will be to give an overview of the design process for the Green Roof at ASLA as well as to explain, through construction photo documentation and graphics, the many layers of construction that resulted in the finished roof garden. Monitoring efforts and results will also be discussed.

Bio
Stephen Noone joined MVVA in 2004 bringing with him a deeply developed knowledge and passion for the role of plants in the designed landscape characterized by a particular fascination with plant communities. Additionally, his background in construction has allowed him to take an active role in the development of design thinking on-site during the construction process. Since arriving at MVVA, he has been the project manager during construction observation for the Kraus Campo at Carnegie Mellon University, North Residential Village at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and ASLA Headquarters green roof in Washington, D.C. Currently he is project manager for Bailey Plaza at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and Teardrop Park South in New York, New York.

Stephen received an Associate Degree in Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design from Farmingdale State University of New York in 1998 and his Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from Colorado State University in 2002 where he was awarded the American Society of Landscape Architects Certificate of Merit.

Mathis Natvik

ECOLOGICAL MODELING ON GREEN ROOFS

The Lower Great Lakes region is a host to many unique habitats that offer plant species suitable for green roofs. Mathis Natvik will discuss these habitats and how they can be modeled for use on Green Roofs. Habitat types that will be discussed include alvars, sand dunes, oak savannah, cliff faces, and even wetlands. These habitats share some similar conditions with green roofs and have many suitable plants for this use. The use of native plants on green roofs has great potential to increase wildlife habitat and biodiversity in the urban areas of the Great Lakes region. This presentation will review the green roof set up, including drainage, growing medium selection and plant species for ecological modeling.

Bio
Mathis Natvik is a well known restoration ecologist, having practiced in southwestern Ontario for 10 years. His projects include the large scale restoration of tallgrass prairie, black oak savannah, Carolinian forest, alvar, sand dune, and wetlands. He has worked with the private sector as well as all levels of government on projects. His most well-known project is spearheading of the acquisition and restoration of the 1000 acre Clear Creek Forest on the shores of Lake Erie with the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Some of Ontario’s largest hardwood trees are now preserved in this tract, as well as Canada’s first use of the pit and mound forest restoration technique.

As an immigrant from Norway, green roofs are an instinctual building technique for Mathis. The family farm in Chatham-Kent, Ontario features some of the region’s oldest green roofs dating back to 1985. Mathis has tested many plant combinations and growing medium types on green roofs in Ontario’s climate. His over twenty years of green roof experimentation is now being used professionally in the ecological design of green roofs modeled after Great Lakes region habitats.

Mathis is the principal of Natvik Ecological, a Guelph based Ecological Restoration and Design firm and operates a plant nursery near Chatham growing native green roof plants and seeds. He is currently a Masters of Landscape Architecture candidate for 2010 at the University of Guelph.