Recession-Defying Green Roofs

Up to 9 million square feet of green roofs were laid last year alone, according to a recent survey of corporations involved in green roof design and development.

ASLA spoke with Steven Peck, ASLA, head of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, about the market growth. Peck agreed that "...green infrastructure projects create lots of local jobs.

'Green roofs are highly labor intensive and you can't export these jobs.' Making the case for increased public investment, he said adding green roofs to 1 percent of U.S. buildings would cost $9 billion and create 190,000 jobs. For 5 percent of buildings, the cost would rise to $48 billion and create almost a million jobs. Finally, if 10 percent of all buildings had these green infrastructure systems, the cost would be $96 billion but almost two million jobs would be created."

More on the market and benefit from green roofs over at The Dirt.