Perhaps unsurpringly, devlopers are claiming that making greens roofs mandatory will add significant costs to building projects, and drive development away from the city.
However, advocacy group Green Roofs for Healthy Cities say that the proposals have been watered down, with industrial buildings, schools, residential buildings less than eight storeys high and buildings with a gross floor area of under 5,000 square metres all being exempt. Siding with green roof advocates, deputy mayor Joe Pantalone has described the draft proposals as "tepid".
Green roofs and walls were discussed in-depth in Construct Ireland last November.
Interesting news from Toronto, where plans by mayor David Miller to make green roofs mandatory in the city are being criticised by both the construction industry and green roof advocates.
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Lenny Antonelli
Lenny Antonelli is deputy editor of Passive House Plus. He also writes regularly for the Irish Times, and has contributed to a variety of other publications including the Sunday Times, the CS Monitor, Village, the Sunday Tribune amd the Dubliner. He is currently working on a radio documentary on Ireland's oceans.
lennyantonelli.ie/