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Living roofs rise in popularity
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Workers install sedum mats on the roof of a five-story condo complex in Missoula, Mont.
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Kai Ryssdal: If you are environmentally minded, you're already plugged into the virtues of energy efficiency. It'll help control global warming and save the planet. It helps cut down on utility bills and saves you money. And in its more unusual forms, it helps farmers find new markets for their crops. From Montana Public Radio, Kevin Maki has more.
KEVIN MAKI: Nate Lengacher turns a valve on an irrigation system and begins watering an acre of sedums and other succulents he's growing in Montana's Bitterroot Valley.
Lengacher is growing 14 different kinds, and his crop is awash in color.
NATE Lengacher: Ruddy oranges and reds. Lots of greens and slight blue-green hints as well.
But Lengacher's plants aren't meant to be decorative. They're destined for a new condominium complex in nearby Missoula where they'll cover the roof.
Lengacher: This product I would put in the true green category.
So-called living roofs are becoming increasingly popular with developers looking to save energy. They provide natural insulation -- reducing the need for air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter.
Lengacher: We growing it out here on traditional ag land. It's nice to bring a little alternative ag to the Bitterroot.
Lengacher contracted with a company called Xero Flor to sell his living roof. Over the past eight years, the company has put up nearly 50 of them across the country.
BRIAN Mosley: We actually partner with our farms, and it's not unlike a co-op. We agree with the farmer in advance. We tell him the price that he will sell his crop to us for before he plants.
Brian Mosley heads the company's Western operations. He's in Montana overseeing the harvest and installation of four roofs, including the one for the condos in Missoula.
Lengacher's succulents grow in thick colonies on carpet-like mats. He cuts them into sections with a masonry saw. He then rolls them up like rugs for transport.
Lengacher: The trick is to make sure this front edge is tucked nice and tight... Ahhh.
It's hard work. Each section weighs about 85 pounds.
Lengacher is one of six farmers across the U.S. whom Xero Flor contracts with. With demand for living roofs on the rise, Mosley says the company's looking for new farmers.
Mosley: Business is growing year after year. Next year we anticipate to be so busy we're gonna have to bring on more folks and expand Nate's crop for example and our other farmers will be expanding.
That's good news for Lengacher. He's got a lot riding on this venture.
Lengacher: Most of the equity in my house to pay for the initial investment and all the materials, the field grading and setup, the tractor and other equipment.
Lengacher and Mosley fire up a rented moving truck full of sedum rolls. Their destination? The town of Missoula, 30 miles up the road.
Architect and developer Eric Hefty stands on top of the five-story condo complex Lengacher's plants will cover. He sees a living roof as a natural choice for a building constructed with recycled lumber and steel.
ERIC Hefty: I'd probably like to do this on every project I do if I can.
Hefty paid around $35,000 more than he would have paid for a conventional roof. He watches as a crane hoists the sedum mats onto the roof. Lengacher measures one roll to figure out the best place to put it.
Lengacher: Looks like 41 inches.
He and a couple hired hands then wrestle the mat into place.
Lengacher: We gotta come back this way. First mat down.
Hefty is struck by the transformation.
Hefty: I can't believe all the colors in it. It's got greens and browns and rusts and grays. It's just amazing. I love it.
By the end of the day, Lengacher's mats span the roof from end to end. He stops to admire the work with Hefty.
Lengacher: This project will get me close to paying off my tractor and paying my loan through the winter, so it's a big deal going into the winter.
Hefty: I need to borrow your tractor in a couple of weeks.
To perk up the plants after their travels, Lengacher takes a hose and gives the living roof a good, deep drink before winter covers it under a blanket of snow.
In Missoula, Mont., I'm Kevin Maki for Marketplace.
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Brian Mosley here with Xero Flor America, LLC. Thank you for the great questions and comments. I would be pleased to answer them directly. Please contact me via our website, www.xeroflora.com. The radio segment was brief and focused on the business aspect of green roofing leaving little time for important details such as storm water mitigation, structural load, regional incentives, etc. I look forward to hearing from listeners. All the best!
I am a long time listener of Marketplace, so I was delighted when the Living Roof story was recently broadcast. It’s especially relevant to me because I am Xero Flor’s newest contract farmer. My story is one of opportunity and chance. I was an out-of-work Information Technology Executive with time on my hands and an intense interest all things green. My friend (and now partner) is a regional sod grower whose business was down due to the slowdown in home building. My partner had the land, equipment and basic know-how, so it was a good match to form our new company. Another factor that made business sense was our close proximity to Chicago, the “green roof capital of North Americaâ€. For me, personally, I have literally gone from behind a desk to behind the wheel of a tractor; I shop at Farm & Fleet instead of Brooks Brothers, and now have a new 18 acre office. Life is good.
I would like to hear about how many extra trees and larger trees need to be cut down to support the heavy load of a rain soaked green roof. Also, saying the roof is $35,000 more expensive does not help us listeners when you don't tell us how big the roof is. A percentage would have been more useful reporting.
The facts are that green roofs are not controversial. They are insulating, prevent storm water runoff, provide evaporative cooling in summer, reduce urban heat island effect through lower coefficients of absorption and absorb carbon dioxide. i am an environmental engineer.
I think this a great concept and it keeps americans working and it saves energy and yes it does help control storm water run off. I sell solar and work for biggest solar company in the East. I wish i could sell a american solar panel. It really makes me smile to hear that americans are taking green roofs for real. The germans have been doing it for 30 years. I am sure china is already working on a plan to sell it cheaper then we can. We will blow this green card as well, china will walk all over us in our own back yards.
Please get a green building fact-checker when doing stories like these. There's a lot of controversy about whether they actually provide insulation in the winter. One of the biggest benefits - on which there is consensus - is stormwater retention. You didn't even mention that one. In Minneapolis, you can get a stormwater management credit on your utility bill for doing that well.
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