My article from the New York Times talks about a proposal in Toronto Canada that may mandate green roofs to improve insulation and roof life, absorb greenhouse gases, and ease the urban heat island effect. If the proposal gets passed it will be the first city in North America to require green roofs. The Mayor David Miller’s strategy is greening 30% to 60% of roof area depending on building size. Most buildings over 54,000 square feet will be required by law to have a green roof. Developers are opposing the proposal arguing that it will scare investors because of the high cost of the construction materials. If the law gets passed, Toronto will join Japan, Germany, Switzerland, and France who already adopted this type of policy and applied it to schools, industrial structures, low-midsize apartments, and affordable houses.
In my opinion, I think it will be a good idea as long as the buildings stay affordable. If low income families can afford that kind of roof I think everybody will try to adopt it, but the challenge will be how to bring down the cost of the construction materials? I think if more people adopt the new idea the demand for the green roofs will go up and they’ll drive the costs down (unless the required material is a depletable resource in which case the cost will keep going up over time and it will be a bad idea).
--Mohammed El Bekkouri
