South Bronx Green Roofs

The city s parks department.

South bronx green roofs.

The green roofs tax abatement was restructured and reauthorized last year with the goal of catalyzing the development of green roofs across the city s 62 square miles of roof space. It keeps buildings warmer in winter cooler in summer and it reduces energy consumption and heating electric bills. These students are the youngest members of green living technologies installer certification program that graduated in march 2010. Green roofs can extend a roof s lifespan by two or three times.

To celebrate bronx week may 12 19 the bronx economic development corporation sponsored a green roofs tour. Bronx teacher steve ritz has scheduled his discovery high school students to install a state of the art green roof in east hampton long island this coming friday august 13th. You know a rooftop is an undiscovered prairie. A university of michigan study showed that a 21 000 square feet 464 000 green roof will save 200 000 over its lifetime.

Michael nixon from the development office was our worthy guide explaining the benefits of having a green roof. According to sustainable south bronx on a 90 degree day a green roof is about 80 f while a black roof is 175 f causing substantial wear and tear. The program has a 90 placement rate after four years of operation. This organization also pioneered a green roof project in the south bronx with its own for profit installation company smartroofs llc and started a green collar job training program called bronx environmental stewardship program b e s t which prepares urban residents in areas such as ecological restoration hazardous waste cleanup green roof installation and maintenance urban forestry and landscaping.

In depth and weighs 10 to 11 pounds per sq ft when fully saturated with rainwater. Minimizing the weight of the green roof was a key consideration in project planning. For the main 7 350 sq ft extensive green roof new york green roofs recommended and installed the xero flor xf301 2fl system option which is 2 5 in. The new abatement would limit subsidies for midtown roof gardens and divert them to communities in eastern queens the south bronx and central brooklyn among others.

Depending on a building s structure food can be grown up there. The first of its kind in the bronx it is one of 14 greenroofs funded through the bronx initiative for energy and the environment of boedc and the borough president aldolfo carri n jr. And obviously in parts of the south bronx there s not that much space for community gardens but one thing we can do as we install more green roofs is to think about these roofs as a place for gardens.