8th May

The World Green Roof Conference was a one day event at the Tongji University. The morning involved the necessary formalities with a number of distinguished academics and politicians welcoming the delegates and underlining their support for roof greening. Dignitaries included Zhou Ganzhi a member of the Chinese Academy of Science and Academy of Engineering and a former Minister of Construction. It is clear that there is high level support for city greening and an interest in zero carbon development using 'high-technology'. There is much interest in the development of home grown roof greening products.

Interest in green roofs appears to be primarily about making cities more liveable although there was some discussion about dealing with urban heat islands and food production. Water conservation and biodiversity are still lower down the agenda.

Recent progress in roof greening in China was brought home to us during the awards ceremony. The winner of the 'World Roof Vegetable Garden Best Town Award', Chengguan Town in Hebei Province now has 100,000 square metres of rooftop vegetable gardens. The leading urban district for roof greening is Minhang District, Shanghai, where 150,000 square metres of green roofs were installed in 2009 alone (I hope to visit some of these roofs in the coming days).