What We're Reading: Keeping cool under a green roof
From Tuesday’s News Journal: Following Senator Coons’ participation in a briefing on “cool roofs” at the Environmental and Energy Study Institute this past Thursday, many of us on staff have been thinking excitedly about the future of urban energy conservation and the potential we have right over our heads. Wade Malcolm at The News Journal explores the emerging “green roof” movement in an article today about the University of Delaware’s first green roof, which covers the Colburn Laboratory and was designed and planted by students, faculty, and staff.
On a warm fall day in 2008, Annette Shine sat in a classroom teaching a course she likes to call “how not to blow up a chemical plant.” Her group of University of Delaware chemical engineering students struggled to learn the difficult material in a sweaty, 86-degree room. The building's ventilation system had been switched over to heat for the winter, so forget about air conditioning. Shine opened a window, but construction nearby made too much noise. So she and her students treated it as an engineering problem, and eventually, they came up with a solution. Grow a garden on the roof.
This fall, people looking over a one-story wing jutting out from the south side of Colburn Laboratory will see an array of colorful plants covering the flat tar roof. The 14,000 square feet of small sedums planted in trays with 4 to 8 inches of soil will be UD's first “green roof.” “There was no good way to cool the building if it got hot certain times of the year,” said Shine, an associate professor. “And it's a popular classroom even though it can be uncomfortable, so this will help.” Rooftop vegetation has sprouted on campuses across the country, from community colleges to Ivy League institutions.
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The new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory, currently under construction on Academy Street, is being built to accommodate a green roof. Nelson hopes the visibility of the Colburn Lab project will inspire more greening elsewhere in the university. “We wanted the first one to be in a visible place to kind of market it to the rest of campus,” [assistant professor of landscape design Chad] Nelson said.
The process was not without its challenges. It required a structural engineering study to ensure the roof wouldn't collapse under the weight of the garden, and facilities personnel wanted assurances that the plants would not become a maintenance hassle. Shine credited the students for helping her through the long process. “Chad and I provided continuity, but the students did a lot of the legwork,” she said.
Read the full story in The News Journal. To learn more about Chris’ work as a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, click here.