Green Building & Environmental Trends : Green Building & Construction LEED AP Consulting : Rich Cartlidge : Environmental Trends, Urban Development

As many of you may know I am involved with an amazing company Build2Sustain. Today I want to take the opportunity to highlight several of the other members of the advisory board who are excellent resources and will be major players in defining the sustainability movement and the direction it takes heading forward. The first of these individuals is Chris Hill of Construction Law Musings. Chris is one of those rare individuals who is able to envision a project's potential benefits as well as the myriad of potential pitfalls and then convey them to a potential client or third party in manner which makes them easily understandable. It is individuals like Chris who are able to temper the contagious optimism of individuals seeking to construct green projects who will be crucial to the long term success of sustainable design and construction for if we fail to identify the risks and take measures to correct them at at early stage, sustainable buildings will under perform and be riddled with problems that will make them prohibitively expensive over the long run. Hand in hand with the role Chris plays is the equally important role of Gregory Arkin of Revit3D who brings his arsenal of technology to the forefront of the design of the buildings of tomorrow. Gregory has a knowledge of Building Information Management (BIM) which is unrivaled. BIM is a new way of designing and analyzing buildings which allows all the parties involved to make changes to a building's design and instantly see how a change in one area such as in the design of the HVAC system will impact other areas such as the electrical system. By allowing the members of a team to make changes and see how they will impact other areas BIM is reducing the costs of construction and permitting the construction of buildings which are more sustainable and which more closely perform to the expectations of the design team. Build2Sustain will leverage on the vast knowledge which these individuals bring to the table and will become a go to source for those involved in the industry.

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This past weekend I had the opportunity to have an excellent conversation with Chris Cheatham of GBLU and Shari Shapiro of GBLB regarding green roofs. The conversation was started by Shari when she posted an article addressing green roofs and their risk for fire potential. Brian Phelps provided an excellent paper addressing green roofs in general and highlighted a section of the paper addressing the fire potential of green roofs which rebuts the article posted by Shari.

While I had previously considered the potential problems with green roofs such as leaks, collapse, and corrosion I had never contemplated a green roof as a potential fire hazard. I suppose part of my failure to consider the risk of a fire potential with a green roof is the key phrase "green" as in properly irrigated and not likely to ignite. However, imagine a green roof gone dry, particularly a green roof which is accessible by building occupants. A dry "green" roof, a stray cigarette, and a urban brush fire! Possible, but highly unlikely. In fact the evidence presented in Christine Robertson's paper suggests that in Germany where green roofs are extensively used there has never been a green roof fire and that as a result green roofs are associated with a 10-20% discounted rate on fire insurance. Likewise, Ms. Robertson's paper suggests  that the threat of fire
is 15-20 times higher on bare roofs with fully adhered bituminous waterproofing membranes
than on extensive green roofs with grasses, perennials and sedums.

Keep tuned to Konstructr for the input of Mark Rabkin a knowledgeable insurance guru and risk management profession who will be chiming in with green roofs from an insurance perspective in the near future.

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