Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor Fall 2020 - 31

major pivots amidst all of the uncertainty. We nearly tripled CSA
enrollment with a hard marketing push, and put together creative
funding to re-allocate nearly 20 per cent of our vegetables to pantries and non profit organizations that are feeding the hungry. By
the summer, all four farm stands opened.
Meanwhile, many of the big green roof installations we'd
booked for 2020, financially critical to the business, were delayed
indefinitely. Landscape maintenance was always deemed as essential, and though it slowed, it never quite stopped. Construction
has now reopened for outdoor spaces and green roofing, and we've
been able to accomplish some of our major projects - enough
to keep us going. Our events, equally critical, have just begun to
restart, in the form of very small, distanced groups. Sadly, though,
most were canceled this year.
In business philosophy, diversification of revenue streams creates
complexity, but that same diversification is also supposed to protect
from unexpected changes and catastrophes. And, as the dust settled,
our multiple channels of business started to show their value. One
thing was up, while another thing was down. People were eating at
home, just not at restaurants. Our landscape designs maximizing
outdoor space, embracing our city's biophilia, and prioritizing green

changing the
of architecture

roofs sure seem wise right now.
And, the few events that are
taking place are eager for safe
outdoor breeze!
These trying times have also
provided opportunities to look
closer at ourselves and at our
operations. We've been able to
better appreciate the value of
our connectedness and our community once we were isolated.
We've experienced both the
honor, and the pressure, of
being essential food workers
amidst a pandemic. We've
opened our eyes further to the
injustice of how our society values critical labor, and ways those
injustices permeate our own
business, particularly amongst
essential work, and even in a city

Ben Flanner is the Co-founder,
CEO of Brooklyn Grange, which
operates three rooftop farms in New
York City.

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with a relatively high minimum
wage of $15/hr. The murder
of George Floyd was the final
tipping point for many, and the
resulting anger and uprisings
across the nation and world,
brought further attention to racist policies in our society which
influence all of these issues.
2020 has brought unprecedented challenges. And with
challenges come opportunities
to rise up and do better. We've
learned a lot in 2020, and we
look forward to what 2021
brings.

LIVING ARCHITECTURE MONITOR / FALL 2020 / 29

http://www.architek.com

Green Roofs - Living Architecture Monitor Fall 2020

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