City of Sydney supports green roofs and walls

The City of Sydney has released a draft policy calling on residents to green their roofs and walls as a way of improving air quality, supporting biodiversity and creating new spaces in the heart of the city for food production and relaxation.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said there are currently at least 96,000 m² of green rooftops and walls across the city - roughly equal to 230 basketball courts - and that the City wishes to “support this emerging industry, give local providers a boost and help city residents and businesses discover the benefits of installing green roofs and walls”.

The green wall at 1 Bligh St, Sydney is the largest vertical green wall in Australia.

In green roofs and walls, plants are integrated into a building’s design, with layers of vegetation installed on top of waterproofing materials. They can be part of the wall structure or freestanding, as simple as a planter box or as elaborate as a large rooftop garden.

Benefits of the practice are said to include the following:

• Slowing and cleaning stormwater,
• Reducing the impacts of the urban heat island effect,
• Creating additional space for urban greening, food production and private open space,
• Improving air quality,
• Improving amenity and liveability,
• Increasing the absorption of carbon dioxide,
• Increasing habitat to support biodiversity,
• Improving building efficiency through heating, cooling and sound insulation,
• Improving the efficiency of solar panels,
• Extending roof life. 

While Sydney’s green roof and wall industry is still young, providers report that demand for their services has grown dramatically over the past few years. Hanna Gammon, managing director of Junglefy, says the business has “gone from strength to strength” since she and her husband set it up in 2009.

“We now have 13 extra staff and the business is really growing. Initially we were only seeing demand for green roofs and walls from big corporations, but now we are witnessing an interest from all sectors of the community. People are really expressing a desire to live in a greener and more natural environment.”

The City has seven green roofs and five green walls of its own, including a newly installed green roof at Prince Alfred Park Pool in Surry Hills - the biggest of its kind in Sydney. It is topped with 35,917 plants, including six varieties of indigenous wildflowers and grasses.

The City’s new draft policy - “the first of its kind in Australia”, according to Moore - looks at ways of further unlocking the potential of the sector by investing in research and technology, reducing installation costs and educating the community on the benefits of green roofs and walls.

The policy will now be available for public exhibition. It can be viewed at various council locations or downloaded here.