Annual Mowing of Living Roof

Vancouver, BC – It’s that time of year again to mow back a year’s growth on the Vancouver Convention Centre’s six-acre living roof. This is the only formal trimming conducted on the roof each year.

To preserve the ecological integrity of the living roof while meeting its sustainability goals, the Convention Centre installed additional moisture sensors on roof over the past year and programmed its irrigation system to minimize water use. This enhancement was one initiative that formed part of the Convention Centre’s successful certification efforts that resulted in LEED Platinum certification (version 4) for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance by the Canada Green Building Council.

The bees living in the four hives on the roof produced approximately 45 pounds of wildflower honey this year.

*Video and high-resolution photos of the roof trim are available upon request.

Phone interviews with Bruce Hemstock, Principal, PWL Partnership Landscape Architects Inc. available upon request.

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BACKGROUNDER

Annual Mowing Fast Facts

• Takes a crew of six landscapers

• Less than two weeks to complete

• Equipment: one lawnmower, three line trimmers and one blade trimmer

• No chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides used

• Some clippings will be left on the roof to be composted back into the soil as fertilizer

Living Roof Fast Facts

• Six acres (2.4 hectares)

• Largest green roof in Canada

• Largest non-industrial green roof in North America

• One of the ten largest green roofs in the world (source: Engineering News Record)

• Landscaped with more than 400,000 indigenous plants and grasses from 25 different plant species of the Pacific Northwest

• Irrigated in the summer with water recycled through facility’s black water treatment plant that collects and cleans water from washrooms

• Acts as an insulator, reducing heat gains in the summer and heat losses in the winter

LEED Facts:

• The Vancouver Convention Centre was awarded LEED Platinum certification (version 4) for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance this year

• Coupled with its 2010 Platinum certification for New Construction, the Convention Centre is the first double LEED Platinum convention centre in the world

• Platinum is the highest level of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)

• Version 4 is the newest version of the rating system