Inhabitat

Thanks for introducing this exciting product but when I click the Toyota Roof Garden link on your site it is in Japanese. They do have a website in English you might want to add for your English speaking readers.

How about fertilizer for year 3 or 4 or 20. Will there be enough decaying matter to sustain growth?

With the cost being approximately $27 per square foot ($43 per 20″x20″ tile) does that incude the cost of installation and what type of underlayment or moisture-protective roof system does this product require?

Jeff, is there any kind of link to the product you are talking about?

Is there some sort of fastening system that will prevent uplift in a windy situation and can these tiles be installed on a pitched roof or just horizontal surfaces?

The issue is irrigation – I can’t see any environmental advantage – it would actually take energy and likely treated water to maintain – there are systems out there tht use plants that you don’t need to irrigate – this is a bad idea if it is spun as sustainable…
M.Cockram Profesor of Architecture U of Oregon

Nice aesthetic value but from the description it lacks some key elements. For starters the price point is above and beyond the market. Second from what I read and can see the product has no way of retaining water beyond the plant material and growing media. I agree with M. Cockram (U of O) the self watering concept means more energy and effort to keep the plant material healthy. There is a company, Green Living Roofs, (www.agreenroof.com) in the US, their extensive (low growing) system is a pre grown modular system that has the ability to retain over 4 gallons of water per 10 sf. With the use of a variety of sedum species (which can absorb its weight in water in minutes) they have a system that provides a mature green roof with all the environmental benefits, lightweight (8lbs per sf) and can customize specifically for the climate region. For the most part they are half the price of what else is available. The same company also has a living wall system that is the future of green tech.

anyone find info on Botanicals Nursery ? if so, please post *

Product has too little media to be sustaniable in continental North America especially when planted with grasses. You need at least 10cm of engineered media (high aggregate content) to have a self sustaining green roof. Contrary to some earlier comments, water retention is not necessary or even desired if the right plants are grown. Unless ofcourse you are growing waterplants on the roof (just remember that water weighs 1kg/L in addition to the weight of the plants). Please refer to a recent publication ‘Green Roof Plants’ by Edmund Snodgrass (Timberpress) for plant selection on an extensive green roof. For a good North American designed alternative type LiveRoof into your search engine.

In addition to Kees’ coments about media and water retention, part of the visual and ecological value of a good green roof is having diverse plants which are beautiful and useful to wildlife. The Korean sod is ecologically barren, and who wants more lawn, really? There are many other green roof products in the world (beyond toyota’s), some of which have been mentioned above, which offer mixed perennials which need no irrigation, and harbor bugs, birds, and blooms all year long. However, I think any green roof is better than none, so good for toyota to put out the word anyway.

I do believe one of the the issue is basically irrigation/ cost. There is a alternate product (growing-media) which u may like to know? That is peat substrates which comes in raw compressed form in block shape. It holds 7 times it’s body weight. Should anyone be interested, you can email to me and I post u the pictures/data.
at : quek@klasmann-greenic.com

[...] Green Roof Tiles [...]

i just found you. I LOVE THIS SITE! thanks

While exciting at first glance, I think this system still has far to go. The purpose of green roofs is to reuse stormwater and decrease wasteful water consumption. Most green roofs therefore use sedums and other native plants that do not need to be irrigated, and that also fit into the local biological cycles (habitat for birds, bees, etc). The Toyota system appears to grow normal “turf” and needs irrigation, which defeats the purpose of the green roof. Also, standard costs for American green roofs (everything included) comes down to $10-15 per square foot (or less, if you’re doing large surface areas). Having surveyed all the mayor green roof suppliers in the U.S., I’ve never seen them at $27/sf. This doesn’t include the waterproofing, but neither does the Toyota system. Definitely easy-to-install systems are the way to broadly disseminate environmental technologies, but this isn’t ideal.

For a bunch of know-it-alls you guys are pathetic with math. With 20″ squares you get 20″ (~1.6 ft.) X 20″ = 400 in.^2.
400/144 = ~2.77 sq. ft.

So each ’tile’ costs ~$15.50 per square foot. High, but not unreasonable for what the market will bear at least on smaller than 10,000 ft.^2 installs. If their green roofs are as good as their cars, its a decent deal. Better than the gaqrbage “Roof Rugs” and other spin-offs on the market which die after 2-3 years. Poor engineering. This is why Asia is kicking our as$es.

I agree with the comments that green roofs have a long way to go. They do. But the concept is excellent and more research and R&D must be done. The stormwater retention benefits alone are worth it,

I’ll think that I’m going to wait until I don’t have to water my roof.

A modular system similar to Toyota’s (but not lawn) is available from an Oregon company. Check out http://www.columbiagreenroof.com/.

[...] Inhabitat points us to Toyota Roof Garden Corp (a subsidiary of the company that brings us the Hybrid Prius). Their Green Roof Tiles are 20 inches square, 2 inches thick, self-irrigating and less than fifty bucks a unit. [...]

I can see that many are interested in costs. A typical extensive green roof (4 to 5 inch depth overall), completely installed including 16 Month maintenance costs in Germany approximately $1.80 to $3 a square foot when talking about sizes between 2,000 and 80,000 square foot.
This is possible because all other things which are not necessary are eliminated. By the way the energy costs (which are a huge part for installation) are 3-4 times higher in Germany.
If we want to have the well know benefits of green roofs we have to do it on a large scale in a short time. All this small alibi or pilot projects help to promote green roofs but are not really helpful for the environment.
The cost in the US (depending on Union issues) can drop below $ 8 sqft. when the project is large enough. I am dedicated to get these costs further down – and you all can help. Do it simple with standardize components – do it big and efficient.
I am happy that nobody was talking about LEED….. j_breuning@yahoo.de

We live right on the west coast of california (monterey bay) and need not only a drought tolerant grass, but one that thrives in salt air — does anyone know of no-mow, salt air tolerant, minimal water requiring tiles? i’d love to use them on an upstairs deck! any and all info would be helpful

Here’s some information for Kate in Monterey Bay on Green Roof for the West Coast: Have you heard by now of Rana Creek in Carmel Valley — Wholesale Nursery, Landscape and Consulting Service, including “Living Architecture”. Here’s a link to their website and “white paper” (.pdf ) on living roofs. http://www.ranacreek.com/pdf/whitepapers/LA_whitepaper.pdf They grow their own fescue called Festuca ‘Rana Creek’, which they sell (wholesale, anyway) in 4 in pots. This is probably what they are using on their green roofs — very drought tolerant and native grass to Monterey Bay area.

If anyone is interested in learning more about green roofs, you may wish to visit Green Roofs for Healthy Cities website, the non-profit association for the green roof, green walls and living architecture industry in North America at http://www.greenroofs.org.

We have a feature on the site that lets you search for a member of our organization — so if you are looking for green roof designers in your area, this database is a good place to start.

We also publish a newly relaunched quarterly magazine called the Living Architecture Monitor (formerly the Green Roof Infrastructure Monitor) and subscriptions are available in a “supporter member” category if you’re not an industry professional. All the info is on our site.

We also have an awards of excellence program so you can see the winners on the site and submit your projects for next year too.