Award Winning Green Roofs & Walls (Part 1)
We recently got curious about the award-winning projects in green roofs and walls as of late, and if you know our blog by now, we couldn’t help but dive deeper and discover all the available resources about this topic -
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Example 1
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, “a rapidly growing not-for-profit industry association working to promote the industry throughout North America”, is a leader in rewarding the growing green roof and green wall industry innovations with awards, and they’re currently accepting submissions for their 2023 “Jeffrey L. Bruce Awards Of Excellence Program”.
Submissions are due by October 1 and the awards will be announced on December 7th. Here’s a quote from GRHO about the annual event: “Each year we recognize integrated design and installation excellence with the Green Roof & Wall Awards of Excellence. We also recognize outstanding contributions to the industry in research, policy, and corporate contribution.”
This Awards Program dates back to 2013 and you’ll find some great examples of award winning green roofs and walls in their Awards Gallery.
For example, this University of Ottawa project we love won an award in 2014 -
For more information about these awards by the GRHO with examples, take a look at their website HERE.
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Example 2
As early as 2003 however, the green roof communities have been supporting one another. See this example HERE -
At a ceremony in Chicago that year, “Number Ten Architectural Group of Winnipeg has won the first annual International Green Roof Award of Excellence for its work at Ducks Unlimited Headquarters at Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre.”
What we loved to see especially was this quote from the article which perfectly summarizes almost all advantages of green roofs - “The green roof recreates a prairie grass habitat that attracts wildlife and reduces heating and cooling loads as well as storm water runoff as the plants act as retention vehicles that hold rainwater and release it through evaporation. “
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Example 3
Furthermore, there are more Awards programs out there closely related to this topic. For example, the past ten years, across the pond in France, global leader in roofing solutions is hosting the OGRA, which is the “Onduline Green Roof Award competition (OGRA) 2023 Asia.” This is not just “green” / “vegetated” roofs, it’s more about green buildings, and roof designs that contribute to overall reduction in energy expenses. It’s important for Groof to stay in the loop with our related industries, so we can continue contributing to the whole picture.
Click HERE for the press release, and see below for more information directly from them -
“This competition was initiated in 2013, and has entered its tenth year. The OGRA 2023 Asia competition is conceptualized as more prestigious with a wider range of participants than in previous years, where this time the championship is open to participants in six countries at once, namely Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam”
“Olivier explained that the purpose of this competition was to appreciate the work of architects and provide inspiration for fellow professionals. "Onduline, which is part of Ondura, a building materials business group that is committed to sustainability, is of course proud to see the response of the participants throughout the 10 years this competition has been held. We hope that all the projects in competition can be implemented in the future," he explained.”
“Green Building Council Indonesia GBCI Chairman Iwan Prijanto said, like it or not, at the time when Indonesia and all countries in the world must enter the energy-saving stage. Developers, architects, interior designers and other building designers are invited to develop green buildings as a form of environmental responsibility. "What is meant by saving energy is the amount of energy consumed by a house that is equivalent to the amount of energy it produces from its own sources, either in the form of solar panels or other renewable energy sources," he said.”
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Example 4
Last but not least (for now - stay tuned to our blog for Part 2 of our Awards series), the oldest example of awards in the Green Roofs and Green Walls industry that we could find so far dates back to the year 2000, and it’s been an annual event ever since - the Scandinavian Green Roof Institute’s “Green Roof Award” for “the best green roof project in Scandinavia, on the initiative of the City of Malmö.”
Click HERE to learn more about this awesome initiative.
One thing we especially like about this Awards Program was this clear distinction they’ve promoted this year on their website about the key difference between an Extensive and Intensive Green Roof -
“Extensive” = The dominating part of the project has a green roof buildup of maximum 15 cm and is inaccessible
“Intensive” = The dominating part of the project has a green roof buildup of minimum 15 cm
Not only are they saying that 15 cm is a good measure distinguishing the two, but they’re also proclaiming that if you’re going to “go short/small” (our words, not theirs) and adopt an extensive green roof, then your green roof should not be accessible… We believe this is an effort to promote the more appealing and productive intensive green roofs (which is also roughly twice the cost) over the lighter, cheaper extensive variety. The way they see it, if you want an award at least, if you’re going for the lighter, cheaper, faster option, it better be because you can’t have any visitors up there to access/experience the green roof themselves. The SIGR has at least twenty years of credibility to back this belief.
Remember to stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog series on Award Winning Green Roofs and Walls.