The Sustainable Green Roof for Living Laboratory in Boston

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Sustainable-Green-Roof-With-Solar-Panels

The oldest public school in the nation, Boston Latin School is progressively create the green roof for their own campus. The students are in the charge to placed a 50,000 square foot sustainable roof on the top of their campus.

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This sustainable roof will not only just a green roof, but also used as a living laboratory that allows the students to experience and study renewable energy, green design, and sustainability first hand. This ideas came from student group BLS Youth CAN (Climate Action Network) in 2007. And thanks to Gail Sullivan of Studio G Architects, that make their ideas become reality.

Sustainable-Green-Roof-Seedling-Process

In 2007, some students from student group BLS Youth CAN came up with the idea for the green roof, and lobbied the administration. And after the idea approved by the school, they start to build the sustainable roof along with Studio G Architects helps to make eventually sustainable living laboratory.

In order to build that, they have been fundraising and applying for grants in order to pay for the 50,000 sq foot roofscape ($5-6.2 million), which has already started construction. So, after the funds become available, they start build the roof that include a series of vertical-axis wind turbines, a cafeteria garden, a greenhouse and an orchard that will provide fresh local produce and help encourage healthy eating habits.

Sustainable-Green-Roof-Living-Laboratory

The project also includes a 28-solar panel array and 350 trays of sedum. That intuitively make the roof become a plece for leisure, studying, and classes to inspire the students. The rooftop will serve as a living laboratory that will teach students about sustainability and the school’s environmental technology.

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The students originally intended to construct the green roof and renewable energy systems as a way to help decrease the school’s carbon emissions, but it will eventually become so much more for them in terms of an educational experience.

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This program is open to all students and will also be available to the other 17 YouthCAN chapters throughout Massachusetts. Other schools will also be allowed to take field trips to the school’s rooftop to get a hands-on learning experience. As of 2007, the seventh grade students who helped originate the project idea had just finished their sophomore year, and they hope that the project can be completed by the time they graduate in 2012.

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source : inhabitat, blsyouthcan, studio-g-architects