Vancouver looks to mandate green roofs on new homes

March 14, 2018

The City of Vancouver, which is aiming to become the world’s greenest city, is looking at mandating green roofs on new residential developments.
In May 2017, the zero-emission bylaw came into effect in the City—introducing Canada’s toughest environmental and energy building code on new homes in a bid to eventually meet international Passive House standards.
Now the City has opened a series of workshops—the first began this month—to look at mandating green roofs on new homes. Green roofs are planted with grass and other plants, and require special pipe systems to drain water into wetlands. The concept is that the water is captured, cleaned and returned to local water systems.
Melina Scholefield, director of green infrastructure implementation for the City of Vancouver, said the new Rain City Strategy aims to capture and clean 90 per cent of rainwater in the city. To that end, the City is implementing new rainwater management practices that aim to use rainwater as a resource, rather than a waste product.
Scholefield said new housing developments should be built with green roofs, like many of the buildings in the Olympic Village condominium project on False Creek.