Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Winter 2017 - 8

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COST-BENEFIT
ANALYSIS
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HELPS
DENVER
VOTE
"YES"
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TO
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GREEN
ROOF
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REQUIREMENT
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54 3206
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ECONOMICS & FINANCE

BY ROHAN LILAUWALA, GRP

In the lead up to the vote on Denver's I-300 Citizen-Led Ballot Initiative
to make green roofs or solar panels mandatory for new and existing
buildings with over 25,000 square feet of floor space, the opposition had
a 12-to-1 fundraising advantage. Inaccurate information about the costs
of the initiative was being distributed to citizens through radio ads and a
mass mail out.
obust cost-benefit analyses have helped to support green roof
policies in places like San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and
Toronto, as well as implementation by building owners like
the General Services Administration and Walmart. In the
absence of any real cost-benefit analysis in Denver, Green Roofs
for Healthy Cities and the Green Infrastructure Foundation, with
the help of Kirstin Weeks of Arup, Andy Creath of Green Roofs of
Colorado, Jeff Joslin from the City of San Francisco and Brandon
Rietheimer of the Denver Green Roof Initiative, conducted a
cost-benefit analysis. The team used Denver-specific data combined
with national averages on the costs and benefits of green roof
implementation to conduct a cost-benefit analysis for a three-storey
office building, as well as for widespread implementation across
Denver. The report was released on October 13, 2017 and profiled
at the Denver Green Roof Symposium held on November 2, 2017.
The analysis on the extensive green roof on an office building
LIVING ARCHITECTURE MONITOR / WINTER 2017 / 8

found that over 25 years, benefits in the areas of stormwater
management (Present Value of $15.1/sq. ft.), energy ($5.7/sq.
ft.), biophilia ($8.5/sq. ft.), and real estate/economics ($21.9/
sq. ft.) more than offset the installation and maintenance cost
premium for building owners and/or tenants ($21.1/sq. ft.).
(See chart right).
Affordability was not an issue for many types of buildings because the life-cycle economic benefits outweigh the
additional costs. In affordable housing projects specifically,
there is evidence of reduced vandalism and greater community
cohesion, particularly when residents can access the roof to
use it as amenity space. Colorado is also one of 33 states where
financing under the PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy)
program is possible, allowing building owners and developers to obtain off-balance sheet financing for installation and
maintenance costs applied to a building's tax assessment. This

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor - Winter 2017
