Greenfornia|Pick up, Recycle, don’t go backwards.

Another alternative to traditional roofing materials is a rooftop garden, or “green roof.” On hot summer days, the surface temperature of a vegetated rooftop can be cooler than the air temperature, whereas the surface of a traditional rooftop can be up to 90°F (50°C) warmer.

• Read the EPA’s page on Green Roofing.

Greenroofs - May be the last frontier for the Californian lawn mower.

The typical green roof is a low-maintenance, light weight, roofing system that uses cost-efficient vegetation to create eco-sensitive alternative roofs for your home. The practice of greenroofs began in Europe a half century ago and can work with a variety of buildings, commercial, industrial, multi-family, garages, or any flat architectural structure.

They benefit the environment in a number of ways:

• they manage storm water runoff by retaining rainwater
• they remove CO2 from the air and release oxygen
• they reduce the amount of heat released by buildings back into the environment that is absorbed from the sun
• they insulate buildings by keeping the heat in during the winter and the heat out during the summer
• they enable a building to merge into the landscape around it

Articles in California

• San Francisco - The California Academy of Sciences’ beautiful new living-roof may well spark a revolution - and CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES GREEN ROOF
• San Diego - Planting The Seeds For Green Roofs - In a gritty industrial section of Kearny Mesa, ‘plantscaper’ Jim Mumford is putting down roots. On his roof.

Great resources on Greenroofs (or Greenroofing)

• Greenroof.org - Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ mission is to increase the awareness of the economic, social, and environmental benefits of green roof infrastructure across North America and rapidly advance the development of the market for green roof products and services.
• Greenroofs.com a green roof directory.
• Global Green Roofs
• http://www.dcgreenworks.org/LID/greenroofs.html