Green Roofs LEED to Multiple Benefits

In fact, the organization reports fairly steady growth since 2001 — the same year the Chicago Department of the Environment installed a 20,000-square-foot green roof on City Hall, the first green roof installation on a municipal building in the United States. The impetus for that installation was Mayor Richard Daley’s goal to illustrate that green roofs could be used successfully on commercial buildings.

Judging by the growth rate, it seems to have worked. Facility executives’ misperceptions of green roofs — too heavy, too expensive, too leak-prone — are gradually eroding as the cache of green roof installations is expanding rapidly.