green roofs for apartments and commercial buildings
Is your business looking for more ways to improve urban sustainability in the Bay Area? Green roofs for apartments and commercial buildings offer tremendous opportunity, changing the face of modern architecture and commercial landscape design. At Gachina, we offer professional green roof management, helping area businesses and HOAs make the switch. Lauren Galanes, our San Francisco Branch Manager and a certified Green Roof Professional, is well versed in green roofing advantages, helping Bay Area businesses use plants’ biological functions to achieve positive environmental change with green roofs.
What is a Green Roof?
Green roofs hold vegetation planted atop a waterproof membrane. Depending on the setup, plants may include a range of sizes, from short, sprawling ground cover to small trees. However, complete green roof systems encompass more than plants. They can also include root barriers, irrigation and drainage systems, and greywater capture and treatment. See our green roof primer for a more detailed look into green roof designs.
Benefits of Green Roofs
A green roof does more than make your building literally greener. Green roofs offer tremendous advantages over traditional roofing options, impacting the environment and surrounding area by:
- Improving roof performance and lifespan
- Capturing particulates and gases to reduce air pollution
- Decreasing stormwater runoff by 40-60%
- Mitigating the urban heat island effect
- Insulating and regulating temperature
- Reducing energy use by up to 25% in the summer (for the average three-story building)
- Offering opportunities for food production
- Increasing biodiversity and providing a habitat for native wildlife
- Integrating with solar energy technology
Ways to Make Your Commercial Landscape Design Greener
There are many ways to integrate greenery into your architecture, creating a more sustainable commercial landscaping design. In addition to green roofs, you may also wish to increase coverage with green walls. These vertical structures provide similar benefits to green roofs and are a great way to breathe new life into blank spaces. Consider pairing your green roof with living walls surrounding building perimeters, incorporating living retaining walls as added support for urban slopes, and integrating green facades for vines and climbing plants. No matter what surface you’d like to cover, living roofs and walls are an excellent way to support the environment and add visual interest to barren landscapes.
Help preserve and protect the Bay Area, ensuring a healthy environment for future generations with green roofs for apartments and commercial buildings. Contact Gachina Landscape Management at 650-853-0400 to discuss adding green roofs and walls to your San Jose Bay Area, Palo Alto, Burlingame, Pleasanton, Hayward, Fremont, Livermore, or Walnut Creek commercial property today.
