If you’ve been to the Brampton YMCA this summer, you may have noticed a bit more green as you pass through the entrance. Back in April, a green roof was installed on the entrance canopy over the span of two days with the help from volunteers. Since then, a diverse mix of plant species have bloomed including wild chives, nodding wild onions, hairy beardtongue, and some sedums.
For many of the 13 Staples Advantage Canada volunteers, this was their first time seeing the anatomy of a green roof up close. Volunteers cleaned the roof membrane, installed the root barrier, snapped together the drainage layer, and finally formed a human chain to conduct a “bucket brigade” to bring the special growing medium to the roof top from the ground. This green roof features a special “living parapet” that will allow the vegetation to be visible to people as they approach the entry of the building.
In Brampton, rooftops make up about 40% of the city’s urban areas. As most rooftops are black in colour, their temperatures can reach up to 70 degrees Celsius on hot summer afternoons. This results in the “urban heat island effect” where cities are several degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside during hot weather. Having a green roof helps cool a building and brings down its energy costs.
Other benefits of green roofs include promoting biodiversity, removing air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing stormwater management by reducing runoff. One of the largest impacts of typical, bare roofs is stress to local water ways. Almost all the rain that lands on typical roofs rapidly drains into storm sewers that contribute to flash floods and brown murky waters in local rivers afterwards. The vegetation and growing medium of green roofs capture and use rain fall and release it slowly into the environment.
So the next time you visit the Brampton YMCA, be sure to look up as you enter through the doors, and take a deep breath to enjoy a bit of cleaner, fresher air.
Written by Anice Wong and Joshua Cherian, Manager of Facilities, Brampton YMCA.
