by Shane Henson — May 20, 2013—Eco-Roofs, a producer of environmentally friendly green roof systems, recently completed a 1,300-square-foot green roof installation atop the four-story, 67-year-old College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Building on the campus of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. This is the first green roof undertaking for the university and was installed entirely by an all-volunteer crew of students, faculty, and university staff, led by Eco-Roofs’ accredited Green Roof Professional and project coordinator Pat Maloney.
The project was initiated by Butler biology student Sarah Strobl while researching green roofs as a topic for her honors thesis. As Strobl found, there are many benefits to installing green roofs, including mitigation of the urban heat island effect, improved storm water management and energy efficiency, noise reduction, and improved aesthetics.
One of the key features of the Eco-Roofs system in particular is the ease of installation engineered into the modular system of plant trays, the company says. Both newly trained and experienced installers can achieve optimum results, providing building owners with greater flexibility and potential cost savings. Eco-Roofs provided free training for the volunteers prior to the installation through its new product-specific certification program.
Located in Berrien Springs, Michigan, Eco-Roofs grows its own plants with the benefit of shared expertise with parent company Twixwood Nursery, a grower of premium perennials for more than 40 years. This enables Eco-Roofs to maintain a stock of 50,000 ready-to-ship, fully established plant trays 365 days a year. The benefit is that Eco-Roof trays can be installed even during the winter months while the plants are dormant, a distinct advantage over other green roof systems, the company says.
Campus engineer Rich Michal, project manager for the green roof installation, pointed out that the Eco-Roofs met all of the university’s objectives for the installation: a lightweight product that would meet the building’s loading limitations; pre-grown modular trays of established plants that did not require a growing-in period; the ability to do the installation with minimal disruption to the building’s operations; a company with experience doing successful installations in the Midwest; and working within an installation timeframe when students were on campus, but that did not interfere with course finals.
