CPD - Green Roofing: Techniques, Benefits, and Environmental Impact

Many companies compete to set sustainable goals as the world becomes vulnerable to climate change. Their common goals are typically renewable energy transition, net zero carbon emissions, circular economy, and waste reduction. They are setting the goals because climate change can increase operational costs, disrupt supply chains, etc. They also create green roofing to make their company’s buildings more sustainable.

Green roofing contributes to building sustainability by providing natural warmth, reducing energy consumption, managing stormwater, and more. However, applying these practices requires a deep understanding of building sustainable techniques and how they impact them. Therefore, this course will walk you through the things that you should know about green buildings. The programme can help you save your business from climate change damage.

What is green roofing?

Green roofing is a system made from vegetation layers on top of the roof surfaces of the building. This vegetative roof can keep the heat in by using the thermal mass of its soil and plant life. The soils and plants can absorb and release heat slowly and can make the temperature warm and comfortable. 

For example, green roofing can provide an extra 25% insulation during the winter. This trapped heat tool can also increase the temperature outside and reduce heat loss. In using these plants to block the cold, your company will not have to spend much money. The money that is supposed be used to buy the heat machine just to stay warm. 

However, not all the plants are suitable for green roofing. This is because the aims and the location will impact their growth. For this reason, the plants should be able to resist the wind and frost and can survive with less water. Also, it should be able to live in a poor soil environment and be maintenance-free. Therefore, the common ones you can put for vegetative roofs are sedum, thyme, chives, moss, and ferns. 

Types of green roofing

There are several types of green roofing, including intensive green roofs, semi-intensive, and extensive. By their names itself, each type has its own characteristics and uses. These different specifications affect their maintenance. At the same time, all of them need lightweight materials to dry out the water. 

The speaker will be discussing these types more in the discussion. However, to provide you with an overview, you can take a look at the details below:

Extensive

Extensive green roofing is a place with 3-6 inches of soil depth and no irrigation system. Because of this, this rooftop type only needs lightweight inorganic materials and plants that don’t require much maintenance. The materials include perlite, leca, sand, rock wool, and crushed tiles or concrete. As for the layers, an extensive rooftop typically has waterproofing and insulation and a root barrier membrane. Also, a drainage layer, a filter, and a growing medium will be included as an extensive vegetative layer.  

Semi-intensive

This green roofing type is covered by perennial plants in 4-8 inches of soil depth. However, the plants should not be shrubs and trees. This is because they will need too many solid depths to establish the root system. At the same time, perennials can be created on a gently gradual slope by making a grid of wooden cells. Then, you can fill the cells with compost to keep them growing. Also, you will need suitable waterproofing, root barrier, drainage, and filter layers to make the area green.

Intensive

Unlike the previous ones, the intensive type is a bit more prominent for an eco surface. It usually needs 1 ft. of soil depth to grow the plants, and it can be a park-like garden. Therefore, suitable plants for this type can be lawns, perennials, shrubs, and small trees. They need large boxes, like raised beds. These boxes keep a lot of soil for plants that need a deeper soil layer for their root system. Because of this, architects or contractors sometimes need to do the planning and construction. 

Course Overview

Eco surface is important to meet a business's sustainability goal. This is because it provides several sustainable practices. Hence, many companies are creating this area within their property. However, there are several things you need to learn in order to build this sustainable project. In response to this learning process, the College of Contract Management provides you with comprehensive and easy courses.

This course is about CPD - Green Roofing: Techniques, Benefits, and Environmental Impact. It explores several aspects of this sustainable building surface. Learning this information can help you contribute to eco-friendly goals and practices. Also, it equips you with the knowledge and skills to build sustainable construction and a more resilient urban environment.

Course Framework

Having green roofing within your building provides several advantages. However, keeping it sound is a bit challenging as you need to understand its maintenance. The preservation of this sustainable area may vary based on its type. Therefore, this course provides a programme to discover more about this vegetation layer. Here are the learning materials you will get through the course:

• Understand the background and future trends
• Identify different types of sustainable building surface
• Know the considerations of the roof design and structural requirements
• Learn about the processes involved in the safe installation
• Gain eco-friendly roofing skills

Eligibility Requirements

This course teaches about the different types, principles, and ways to do the maintenance of green roofs. Therefore, it is suitable for construction professionals, architects, landscapers, and sustainability advocates. However, this training is still open to everyone who wants to learn about sustainable insulation. Also, this doesn’t need any specific requirements. As a result, people can easily join the class. 

The benefits of green roofing

Green roofing offers many benefits for any aspect of life, including economic, ecological, and societal levels. The benefits can be improved water quality, better stormwater management, energy efficiency, natural insulation, and more. As the environment adapts to the changes of modernisation, it increases the natural risks that may occur in the future. 

Therefore, a sustainable garden can be a good option for commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential construction. Here are some benefits you may get from making an eco-friendly surface of a building:

Improve the drainage system

Sustainable drainage is important to any building, especially for green roofing, because it counters flooding due to excess rainfall. Drainage systems usually consist of pipes that carry wastewater away from a building or property. Therefore, effectively moving this through a disposal system can reduce rainwater runoff. You can do this by absorbing and storing the water within the vegetation and soil layers. This can improve the drainage system's performance.

Increase the lifespan of the roof

As the vegetative layers are located on the surface of the building, it may face several attacks. These attacks can be from wind, rain, ultraviolet light, and fluctuating temperatures. Therefore, green roofing can play as a protective layer against these conditions. For example, the plants can absorb the heat during summer. This way, you can mitigate extreme temperature changes and increase the roof’s durability.

Improving thermal performance

Sustainable roofing can increase heating performance. This is the result as the plants in this green area can absorb the sunlight. They release water vapour through their leaves. This gives them the ability to cool the surrounding air. Also, their root systems act as an insulating layer. This way, it can moderate the temperature fluctuations inside the building. As a result, you can reduce the roof surface temperature. 

Aiding air quality

Green roofing can improve air quality by releasing oxygen. This is because the plants in the garden area go through a photosynthesis process. This is a process where they use sunlight energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen. Therefore, the more plants you have, the better the quality of air will be.

Discovering building green roofing with CCM

Green roofing is a good method to support sustainable goals and enhance a building's performance. This way, it can monitor the building’s temperature changes, manage the stormwater, improve air quality, and more eco-friendly methods. However, creating this green area requires a deep understanding of construction, sustainability, and architecture. Therefore, the College of Contract of Management steps in to provide you with the sources. 

This course discusses several ways of sustainability. One of them concerns the vegetation layer of a building. Understanding this eco-friendly layer can give you insight into improving the environment while keeping the building good. Also, this programme takes less than 48 hours to learn. By the end of the course, you will be equipped with a completion certificate. This certificate aims to prove your knowledge and skills and contribute to your career growth.

This CPD course aims to help people learn about eco-friendly rooftops. With this, the schedule of this course will be announced accordingly. It will be shared once the speakers and materials are ready. Therefore, we encourage you to contact our team if you have questions or need further assistance. We are glad to provide you with the best service.