Up On The Roof

A vegetated “green roof” installed recently at the Regional Cancer Collaborative at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center in Green Bay will further the facility’s mission of healing and is a natural extension of its decades-old environmental ethic, according to the hospital’s director of environmental services.

“Our mission includes reverence for the earth,” says Corrine Vercauteren. “The green roof is one of several projects the hospital has undertaken to improve our environmental performance and save money. At the same time, it will enhance the healing environment so vital to our cancer patients and others.”

Touted as the largest in the state, the third-floor green roof covers 22,000 square feet and is composed of multiple pre-vegetated modular LiveRoof panels supplied by Bachman’s Nursery of Minneapolis. The roof includes 16,000 square feet of sedum and alum and 6,000 square feet of concrete walking paths and seating. An additional 2,362 square feet of gardens also are planned at ground level.

Vercauteren says sedum and alum plants are good choices for the roof.

“Both plants are hardy in our zone 3-4 climate. Sedums are highly efficient users of rainfall, whether too much or too little, which helps in managing storm water runoff. And they’ll provide beautiful shades of pink, white, burgundy and yellow against a backdrop of green,” she notes.

Rooftop gardens are literally growing by leaps and bounds around the country, says LiveRoof representative Doug Danielson. His company supplied and installed St. Mary’s roof, has completed projects at St. Elizabeth Hospital and Lawrence University in Appleton and is bidding on several other projects in northeast Wisconsin.

“In 2007, we installed about 1,000 square feet of green roof. In 2009, we’ll be at about 41,000 square feet. This is a growing business, in more ways than one,” he notes with a laugh.

Vercauteren is enthusiastic about the environmental benefits of the green roof and its connection to other earth-friendly features of the Regional Cancer Collaborative facility.

“The construction project has followed Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards including energy saving daylighting, bio-filtration of storm water, rainwater collection and irrigation, polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-free all natural finishes and Energy Star heating and cooling systems,” she says. “This is on the whole, one of the greenest construction projects in the area.”