SPRING LAKE - Green roofs are becoming more prevalent in West Michigan as contractors, building owners, architects, developers and facility managers realize their many benefits. Among those benefits are stormwater management, doubling or tripling of the life of the roof, and saving approximately 25 percent on air conditioning costs, according to Dave MacKenzie, owner of Spring Lake-based Hortech Inc. MacKenzie recently formed a new division at Hortech called LiveRoof LLC, which was created specifically to market and sell modular green roof systems.Guy Bazzani, president and CEO of Bazzani & Associates and a proponent of sustainable construction, chose Hortech for the green roof atop his East Hills Center development in Grand Rapids. Bazzani researched areas with similar climates to Michigan to come up with new energy-efficient systems and to better understand draining, soil and plant selections. A green roof now covers the development's five offices, including that of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council.

"The green roof makes good sense for stormwater management. It helps cool your building and helps the aesthetic value of the building," Bazzani told MiBiz.

Bazzani & Associates is currently testing the efficiency of the East Hills Center and using it as a test site to measure thermal performance and stormwater management. So far, because of the green roof, the East Hills Center has zero stormwater discharge.

Bazzani also worked with Hortech for Metropolitan Health's planned 48,000-square-foot green roof at its new hospital under construction in southern Kent County.

Metropolitan Health Sustainability Business Officer John Ebers said the hospital's construction manager Workstage LLC connected hospital officials to Bazzani. Metro Health was awarded a $400,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to help pay for a vegetative roof as well as three rain gardens that will be installed in the hospital's parking lot.

"We knew we wanted a green roof. Then as we started moving forward, we wanted to make sure we were getting the best information," Ebers said. "We purchased the plants from Hortech. They're in the greenhouse growing right now."

Metro Health's green roof will cover the top of a one-story administrative building that will be visible from 170 patient rooms in the six-story hospital.

"Probably the most significant reason for the green roof is to provide a soothing landscape for our patients," Ebers told MiBiz. "We're selecting a lot of plants that flower throughout the spring, summer and fall."

The green roof will also help the hospital achieve U.S. Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification.

Developer Doug Harjer, who is building Vida Nova at Edison Landing in Muskegon, is going for LEED Gold certification for his waterfront condominium development. A green roof will be installed in the next couple of months for the four-plex that is part of the first phase of the development.

"I've always been environmentally conscious and saw this (green roof) as an opportunity to include some of my ideas into a viable project," Harjer told MiBiz. Green roofs from Hortech will eventually be on all of the development's six different buildings.

Spring Lake-based Hortech got involved with green roofs four years ago. MacKenzie, whose company is a recognized leader in ground covers with a broad line of perennials, helped with plant selection and maintenance and care of a huge green roof for Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn.

Shortly after that project Hortech was asked by a Chicago-based client to design a modular green roof system. MacKenzie pulled together a team of experts including a green roof expert, manufacturing and marketing professionals, architects, engineers and roofers and developed the LiveRoof modular system. Hortech received a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to market the modular LiveRoof system.

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MiBiz Network
http://www.mibiz.com/
By KAREN GENTRY
MiBiz - kgentry@mibiz.com
Tuesday, December 26, 2006 - MiBiz

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