Roely Rijpkema
A lot of people want to be more sustainable, but it is not always easy to do. This because of the efforts you have to make in your lifestyle or because of an economical reason. To promote sustainability Rotterdam came up with a nice solution which is not only nice for the owner of a building, but also for its surrounding. By walking in Rotterdam, you probably don’t see it, but there are a lot of green roofs. It’s nice to see them, a little bit more nature in the inner city. But do you know the benefits of putting greenery on the roofs? The roofs are a buffer for the rain, so the plumping system will have less rain to manage. There are lots of areas in the city with not much greenery, the green roofs give dry feet to the people living here. Also the roofs clean the air, is more insulating the roof and makes the live of the roofs longer. A green roof is covering the roof with earth and plants, which makes an insulation protection layer and the roof will live two times longer. Of course a nice addition is that the roofs gives Rotterdam a more ‘green’ view. The roofs cannot be only used for just being green, but they can also be used. Different types of green roofs are possible, so also a vegetable garden. This example is made on the Schieblock in Rotterdam. The vegetables of the garden are used for a restaurant, but t is also possible to get the vegetables yourself on Fridays in the main season.
Sounds all very nice, but putting a green roof is not cheap to do. There are several measurements you have to take into account. The building needs to be strong enough, but also big changes on the roof has to be made. To stimulate this, Rotterdam is giving nice subsidy to the owners of the houses. They help you with making the roof green. At the moment there is around 220.000 square meter of green roofs in Rotterdam.
I think this municipality is an good example for promoting sustainability. It is not only positive for the owner, but is a nice addition to the total neighbourhood. A lot of people can enjoy the green roofs in Rotterdam.
More information you can find on: http://www.rotterdam.nl/groenedaken