2023 has proved to be an eventful year for GRO. We welcomed new members to the organisation, exhibited at a major trade show, saw changes to the board at our AGM, launched a children’s book, created a green roof education fund, influenced updates to roofing fire regulations and initiated a technical group for biodiversity net gain.
As ever, our board members, technical teams and marketing team went above and beyond the call of duty to raise awareness of and improve standards in the green roof and blue roof industries, and we are proud of what we achieved.
This review of the year 2023 outlines just a few of GRO’s activities.
The GRO Pavilion at Futurebuild
Futurebuild is one of the best attended construction industry trade shows in the UK. And The Green Roof Organisation was proud to be a part of it in March 2023. The GRO Pavilion was a collaboration of associates, suppliers, installers and manufacturers from the green roof industry and offered visitors to the show valuable insights into the benefits of building high quality living roofs.
To help showcase GRO members’ expertise and experience, a series of three, panel led seminars were arranged. These proved extremely popular with show visitors and stimulated a lot of interest.
GRO will be at Futurebuild 2024 with the now iconic GRO Pavilion and some more topical and engaging seminars.
Welcoming A New Board Chairman
Following his exceptional spell guiding the green roof industry and setting up GRO as a trade association, we accepted Mark Harris’ resignation as chairman of the GRO Board at our AGM in March. Mark was a key member of the team who established the Green Roof Organisation from the very beginning, and it was under his leadership that a number of influential green roof resources were developed. However, we are pleased that Mark has remained an intrinsic board member in the role of Secretary and our delighted to welcome our new chairman Giles Doland from Zinco Green Roof Systems.
L-R Mark Harris (GRO Secretary), Giles Doland (Chairman) and Chris Bridgman (Vice Chairman) at the 2023 AGM
Read more about the GRO Board reshuffle here.
World Green Roof Day
World Green Roof Day has grown in popularity year on year since its inception. 2023 saw the most ever stories, images, videos and case studies shared around the globe, with many downloads of the instructions to ‘build a lego green roof bus stop’.
If you are yet to build a lego green roof bus stop, you can download the pdf here.
Throw back to World Green Roof Day 2021
Educating Children About Living Roof Benefits
Green roofs and blue roofs are definitely becoming part of mainstream architecture, but as most of them are hidden from view on top of tall buildings, they are arguably under appreciated. GRO Board members feel strongly that every member of our society should understand the importance of living roofs and, indeed, to demand that more structures have environmentally friendly toppings.
Where better to begin educating the world about the benefits of green roofs, than by teaching our children?
In June 2023, after many months of collaborating with Jenny Bailey and the team at Tales From Mother Earth, “Journey To The Green Roof” was launched on World Green Roof Day. It’s an engaging interactive book designed to encourage 3 -10 year olds about the importance of living roofs for wildlife.
Proceeds from book sales have been used to create a GRO Education Fund. Read more here.
Great Uptake On Green Roof Training Schemes
Lantra, The Living Roof Academy and Wildflower Turf are among the GRO members offering training to green roof professionals. All three of these organisations have reported a marked increase in the demand for learning about the design, installation and maintenance of living roofs.
Bookings for 2024 courses are already being taken for Lantra’s green roof training courses.
Click here to learn more about Green Roof Installation and Maintenance Courses From Lantra.
Lantra also offers a very popular e-learning course. Click here for details.
Fire Regulations Update
Mark Harris from Radmat has been working with several regulatory bodies to update the BSI standards and the DCLG guidance with regard to fire safety and green roofs.
At the time of writing, the draft guidance document is being reviewed by the Building Safety Regulator. It will hopefully be published in 2024 which will greatly assist the construction and insurance markets.
As a result of Mark’s work, GRO will be launching a fire assessment programme in 2024. The programme will enable members to submit their individual green roof systems for compliance assessment by the newly formed GRO Fire Performance Assessment Group. Successfully assessed green roof systems will be awarded a unique reference number and a GRO Fire Assessed logo. A online register will be held for specifiers to access and members will be able to market that their system is compliant with the requirements of the Building Regulations. The GRO Fire Assessment Programme will be launched at Futurebuild 2024.
Biodiversity Net Gain
GRO are passionate about the advancement of Biodiversity Net Gain and this year, have created a technical committee in order to address BNG matters. The group aims to support planners, architects, developers and installers in their quest to expand and enhance the natural environment. More news on this one to follow.
Looking Forward to 2024
The GRO team will be working hard throughout 2024 to raise awareness of green roof and blue roof technology in the UK and beyond. We aim to support the green roof industry with advice and guidance and look forward to welcoming new members to help us do just that.