Design, Implementation, and Monitoring of Purdue's First Green Roof

To educate the Purdue community and general public about the environmental benefits of green roofs, the Boiler Green Initiative (BGI) installed Tippecanoe County’s first green roof on Purdue’s campus in May 2009. The extensive green roof is approximately 165 m and consists of vegetation and pavers to make the space an aesthetically pleasing, usable environment. A monitoring system records surface temperature, soil moisture, rainfall, and stormwater runoff data. The environmental benefits of the roof were quantified by conducting water balances to determine the amount of rain prevented from becoming runoff and using surface temperature data to assess the green roof’s ability to mitigate surface temperature fluctuations. BGI plans to use data collected from this monitoring system to promote the installation of green roofs on other existing and future buildings on Purdue’s campus by demonstrating their ability to reduce energy consumption and stormwater runoff.