The main function of the living roof is to reclaim the land taken by the building’s footprint, allowing the myriad of local insect and bird species to continue to use the land. In addition, this allows rainwater that would otherwise run off to be captured and a portion of it to be returned to the atmosphere via evapo-transpiration. The plants on the roof also help reoxygenate the air and process airborne toxins, a feature that has less importance in our rural setting than in a city, but is beneficial nonetheless. These benefits that relate to replacing the building’s footprint are, in truth, rather small. (Is a statistically significant amount of water going to be returned to the air due to evapo-transpiration on our roof? No, of course not). However, we believe them to be vitally important from an exemplary, ideological and educational standpoint. If, for example, the practice of building green roofs became common practice in urban settings, then the benefits described above would compound and become significant.

Luckily, our green roof also provides us with actual, practical benefits as well. This type of roof increases the thermal mass of the building and has very good insulating benefits. At the same time, the green roof helps keep the building much cooler in the summer than the typical black tar roof. A black tar roof, which readily absorbs sunlight, can get as hot as 185ºF in the sun, while a living roof will stay below 100ºF. This, along with various other features present in the building, means that we do not have to have an air conditioning system in the building at all. Of course, there is also the more obvious benefit that having a living roof is that there is no need to use black tar at all, which is primarily made from coal or petroleum and is considered toxic and carcinogenic.