Up On The Housetop, Mow, Mow, Mow

Yesterday, I discussed how the elderly are having a hard time navigating through our modern day, fast-paced cities designed more for cars than people.

And of course I got to thinking: what will a city be like when I'm elderly? The best place to look to find out what the cities of the future will be like is up.

Green roofs are already taking root across the world, as urban developers are finding ways not only to design and build LEED buildings, but to make those buildings useful in other ways. Imagine a skyscraper that houses a greenhouse, with each floor growing local and fresh food for the city's inhabitants. Imagine entire gardens off the coast of a city, replacing the oil rigs with olive oil rigs.

The fantastic website inhabitat.com (where all of this post's pictures are from) has some excellent updates about green roofs.

Per Wikipedia, green roofs:

• Reduce heating and cooling loads on a building. A concentration of green roofs in an urban area can even reduce the city's average temperatures during the summer
• Increase roof life spans
• Reduce stormwater run off
• Filter pollutants out of the air
• Help to insulate a building for sound
• Filter pollutants and heavy metals out of rainwater
• Increase wildlife habitats in built-up areas
• Grow fruits, vegetables, and flowers

Green roofs are a win-win, in terms of feeding both people and the environment, all while keeping costs down for building owners. To find out more about green roofs, check out inhabitat.com.

I hope for my sake that when I'm an old man, I can grow my vegetables on a skyscraper. Green roofs are a plus for everyone. Even Santa can save money by having the reindeer graze on the job.
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Check out some of these pictures of green roof project ideas:




dotloop.com