Numerous cities and towns have successfully made the case for the environmental and economic efficacy of green roofs across a range of political and climatological settings. While each has done their own homework and advocacy, so too have evolved various principles and practices useful to those looking to further existing policies, or implement new ones.
To capture these advancements, and to provide a baseline tool for municipalities considering developing policies specific to their unique environment, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities recently published a new guide: Green Roof Policy in North America. This document not only serves as a compendium of established regulatory and incentive approaches and policies, but also provides an overview of lessons-learned and strategic considerations when attempting to develop and advance such policies and regulations. Following are some observations that have resulted from this rapidly evolving collective knowledge set.
Policy is Fine, But One Must Establish a Clear Path to Actual Implementation
Policy advocacy and placement can contribute to awareness of green roofs as a climate-change strategy, and promote education about green roofs. For entities just entering the climate change arena, identifying green roofs as an essential and practical response may be a useful and necessary initial step. However, policies without implementation goals and tools push the critical work farther into the future. The time to implement meaningful tools is now, and any policy should establish defined and aggressive goals and timelines. Likelihood of success is dramatically improved if defensible financial analyses is at the forefront of the effort.
Any effort to establish a policy or regulation should include anticipatory financial analysis to address concerns about the first cost of green roof installation and maintenance. Economic concern is inevitable: it’s the one aspect that all policy makers and the constituencies most affected will raise early. Demonstrated benefits at various building scales, and at the community-wide scale have proven to win over a wide variety of constituencies for the policies in cities like New York, San Francisco and Toronto.
The analytical tools exist and are accessible. Executing a cost benefit analysis that is transparent and defensible is essential to best understand and describe the implications and benefits of prospective policy initiatives.
Assumptions within such analyses need to be based in local bioclimatic conditions, zoning and the specific development environment. The more ready and complete the analysis, the greater the likelihood of advancement. Once an analysis is established for a particular geography, it’s a modest effort to apply it to various building typologies as appropriate for the locality. This information will address concerns of stakeholders, and can also contribute to the crafting of a more effective policy.
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August 24, 2020 at 07:00PM
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Observations from the Green Roof Policy Front - Living Architecture Monitor magazine
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