There is no better way to spend a Saturday than getting your hands dirty for a good cause. On May 29th, a group of volunteers from Projects In Place and TELUS spent the day with me (Heidi) building an organic kitchen garden for Zajac Ranch for Children. The Zajac Ranch is a summer camp in Mission that serves children with serious and chronic illnesses and disabilities.
The weather was less than ideal but the pouring rain had little effect on my eager group of volunteers. We worked together continuously through the morning moving wood, measuring materials, sorting seeds, sawing wood and drilling in screws. By lunch time, we were had finished half the project – right on schedule despite the rain!
We wolfed down our hot dogs and we headed back to work feeling determined to finish the project by the end of the day. We filled the planter boxes we made in the morning with several wheel-barrows full of gravel, many sheets of filter fabric and a small hill of soil. Everyone was soaked in the rain from head to toe but we were enjoying every minute of it. Another 3 hours quickly flew by and we were ready to start planting. We planted many tomato and zucchini plants. We also seeded for squash, radish, lettuce, carrot, cucumber and fennel. At 4:30pm, after 6 hours of hard work, we finished ALL the work and completed our project!
I am very grateful for all of the help from my volunteers and the Zajac Ranch workers. I want to give a big thank you to TELUS for their volunteers, who were also donating their time for many other projects on the ranch that day. I had a wonderful experience working with Zajac Ranch for Children on this project and I cannot wait for the children to start getting their hands in dirt and have fun growing their own nutritious organic vegetables this summer.
Copenhagen and its green roof ambitions – Catch Up, Vancouver!
Forwarded to you all from Cornelia Oberlander…
Copenhagen and its green roof ambitions
Copenhagen is the first city in Scandinavia to have a manditory green roof policy. The new policy makes vegetation and soil a mandatory obligation in planning. The policy covers all roofs with less than a 300 pitch and also covers refurbishment of older roofs. However such roofs will get some public financial. The green roof policy is part of a wider ambition the City has to be carbon neutral:
’Copenhagen has set itself the ambitious target of becoming the world’s first carbon neutral capital by 2025. To meet this ambitious goal we need ambitious measures. Therefore we have now decided to ensure the City adapst to extreme weather conditions by making new requirements for getting grass on top of as many buildings as possible, ’ – Mayor of Technical and Environmental Administration, Bo Asmus Kjeldgaard.
The City of Copenhagen has set out four requirements for green roofs. Buildings with green roofs should be able to meet at least two of the following effects:
• Absorb 50-80% of the precipitation that falls on the roof.
• Provide a cooling and insulating effect of the building and reduce reflection.
• Help make the city greener, reducing the urban heat island effect, counteracting the increased temperatures in the city.
• Contribute to a visual and aesthetic architectural variation that has a positive effect on the quality of life.
• Double the roof life of the roofing membrane by protecting it against UV rays etc
Today about 20,0000 m2 of the roofs in Copenhagen are flat and at least 30 buildings have green roofs. It is envisioned that new development should add 5000 m2 per year – though this is only aspirational as i twill depend on the development cycle and economic factors