Green Roofs
Growing vegetated landscapes on rooftops in cities around the world
A green roof, also known as a ‘living roof’, ‘eco-roof’, and ‘vegetated roof’, is a vegetated landscape installed on a rooftop. Green roofs are common in the northern hemisphere but rare in Australia due to barriers that we are working to overcome.
Projects
- Researching the benefits of demonstration green roofs across Australia
- The Growing Green Guide for Melbourne
- Mimicking natural ecosystems to improve green roof performance
- Living roofs for healthier living? Impacts on employee stress, engagement, well-being and performance
- Green roofs – improving urban environments in a changing climate
- Pixel building green roof
- The Venny green roof
Our research impact
We have developed green roofs and quantified their benefits by:
- evaluating plant species for use on Australian green roofs by assessing their characteristics and performance
- developing and testing substrates that support plant growth, are lightweight, chemically and physically stable, and can be retrofitted to diverse building types
- quantifying the hydrology and energy benefits of green roofs, investigating the interactions of substrate, soil moisture and vegetation on thermal fluxes and building insulation
- examining the psychological and productivity benefits of green roofs for urban employees and residents and determining the most preferred green roof types.
Impact snapshot
- Our substrates based on waste materials (bottom ash), local materials (scoria) and recycled materials (crushed brick and roof tiles), are now used by the green roof industry.
- Our research informed the Growing Green Guide, a free industry-standard guide to integrating vegetation with construction through green roofs, walls and facades. A Victorian Premier’s Sustainability Award winner, it has been downloaded thousands of times, translated into other languages and used as a teaching tool around the world.
- Industry has used our research to develop green roofs including Pixel Building The Venny Community Centre, Minifie Park Early Childhood Centre, Council House 2 and Growing Up (132 Queen Street).
- Our Burnley Living Green Roof provides valuable data about green roof plant and substrate performance under local conditions to help government, industry and the community make informed decisions.