The Green Roof Wave has hit Charleston!

GRO (Green Roof Outfitters) is based in the Charleston area and services any and all who are interested in green roofing. There are many locations throughout the U.S. but it is nice to know that we have one right here in Charleston as well! Through this company even a Wal Mart in America now has a green roof! GRO provides the following services to its customers: consultation on scope of green roof project, provide cost estimation, propagation of vegetated modules, delivery to site (if needed), installation (if needed), 1 year warranty & maintenance included, and an ongoing maintenance plan (if needed). The GRO Modular green roof system can assist a building in achieving over 50% of the points needed to attain LEED Certification! The LEED Credits associated with GRO include sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy &atmosphere, materials & resources, and innovation & design process. They are even helping to organize an environmentally friendly 5K race in Mt. Pleasant! The race is called Catch the Leprechaun 5K and it takes place at 6:30pm on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at the Memorial Waterfront Park. There will be Irish music, a great post race party, a pot of gold for the winners and there will even be a Leprechaun, and if you finish before the Leprechaun you win a prize! Be sure to check out GRO and the race details at www.greenroofoutfitters.com.

Green Roofs

I posted pictures of green roofs in Norway last year. Turns out those are rather popular (one of the major links in to the blog from Google searches). Today the Post and Courier has a story on green roofs. Of course it's not about roofs in Charleston. Some of my students a year and a half ago looked into the possibility of getting a green roof business going here and the initial response was rather negative - most people had no idea what one was or why they would want it. Maybe today's article will help on both counts. Can the green roof wave hit Charleston?

Traditional Green Roofs in Norway

While visiting the Norsk Folkemuseum, where there are collections of traditional buildings dating back hundreds of years, we saw many instances of the traditional green roof. And of course we have pictures, like the house to the below. You can take a look at several of the roofs here. You'll see some close ups (as close as I could get) to see that they use birch bark as a lining material.