Over the Top with Green Roof Research in Denver

While the city of Denver, Colorado is famous for its mile-high elevation, employees working in EPA's regional headquarters there are thinking slightly higher. The office building they occupy downtown is topped with a "green roof," some 40,000 plants growing in a network of two-foot by four-foot modular trays. The roof is the focus of a collaborative research project exploring the practicability and environmental benefits of cultivating green roofs in such high, semi-arid climates.

"Even before we moved into the building, we worked with the developer to help design a workspace that that could serve as model for minimizing the environmental footprint of the typical office building found in an urban setting. Our green roof is the most conspicuous-and I think the best-part of that effort," explains EPA regional scientist Patti Tyler, the project manager for the green roof research project.