On November 13, 2015 the management of Greensulate will have a telephone conference with potential investors and their advisors about the firm’s prospects. I have arranged for Alfred University to have access to this call.
The greenroof industry looks like a flower garden gone to weed. Vibrant, fecund, fast growing and productive. But also wild, shapeless and chaotic. Greensulate is transforming all that into an English garden.
Greenroofs’ benefits are well known. Green roofs protect the original roof from damage from UV rays, cycles of freezing and heating and whatever humans do to them, so they can last up to three or four times as long as typical roofs. One big benefit they provide is natural insulation, which saves on heating and cooling costs. Those savings can reach 73 percent in the summer on a one-story building. So investments can be recouped in about 20 years.
As impressive as that is, those benefits don’t count the environmental benefits (the “externalities”, if you will). For the climate, greenroofs absorb CO2, produce oxygen and establish roof-top eco-systems with a surprising amount of biodiversity. (“We even saw bees!” exclaimed one employee.) For the local government, greenroofs aid in storm water management, by slowing the flow of water down the drains during and immediately after a rain storm. Employees and residents in the green-roofed buildings feel better and work more productively.
Super Storm Sandy drove home the benefit of slowing storm water runoff and sewage overflows that occur when a storm overburdens the city’s water management system. Green roofs capture water at lower cost than trying to control it through end-of-pipe storage tanks and the other engineered systems, like pumps and raised ventilation grates that the NYC transit authority is considering.