Why Green Roofs are So Much Better than Asphalt Roofs

Why Green Roofs are So Much Better than Asphalt Roofs | Columbia, MD

Most people consider a green roof a topper using sustainable materials. In actuality, green roofs are a span of living plants and grasses atop a house or commercial building. In a sea of bleak black, the green roof is a return to nature, a mitigating force for different species of birds and insects. Where man has built, birds, butterflies and insects have lost their habitat. Green roofs not only provide beauty, but they return to exiled species their rightful milieu.

Water Quality

Plants filter pollutants from rainwater. The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, says that green roofs return cleaner water to the storm runoff drains. Water crossing parking lots and roads contain oils and other chemicals. Water absorbed into the ground contains lawn fertilizers and other chemicals, pet waste and bacteria. All that flows into the stormwater drains. Some is filtered out, but sometimes the sheer volume of water can not only cause flooding and the destruction of natural habitats, but the pollutants can overpower the filtering process. The sum of these problems is the poisoning of water downstream in addition to natural habitats. Green roofs can help.

Read the rest of the benefits of green roofs here..

Published in Exteriors

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