First Green Roofs Conference Draws Crowd

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Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities, the first national conference on green roofs, was held May 29–30 in Chicago, drawing more than 500 attendees. Organized by the Toronto-based organization Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and hosted by the City of Chicago (which has actively promoted green roofs for the past four or five years), the conference was well received and highly educational. There were more than 40 speakers, nearly a quarter of whom were from outside North America—including Germany, Sweden, England, and Switzerland, where the green roof movement is far more established. The trade show, with 34 exhibitors, included nearly all the significant North American players in the green roof industry.

Interest in green roofs is burgeoning, and it became very clear at the conference that we are learning a great deal about how they work and what their benefits are. (For some background on green roofs see

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