The Green roof Technology Assessment (GreenTA) project investigated the cost and benefits arising from the installation of green roofs, while develop- ing a user-friendly evaluation tool to quantify said benefits. As the awareness of sustainability’s importance for humanity’s future grows, so does the inter- est in urban ecosystem services – the benefits that humans can gain from interacting with the urban environment. It is known that mankind is increas- ingly choosing life in the city, and roofs are a fundamental element of the built environment – in Italy for example, roofs account for 20-25% of the urban surfaces.
The role of green roofs is therefore fundamental in cultivating a sustainable future. Despite their importance, however, existing literature reveals that the current scenario for green roof evaluation lacks tools that consider a variety of benefits at once, a gap that the GreenTA project sought to understand and bridge.
The tool considers green roof benefits from a multidisciplinary point of view through environmental, economic, and social perspectives, with its primary users being designers and policy-makers. The tool not only helps these actors to reach better decision-making concerning green roofs but can also be vital in increasing the awareness of their benefits, helping the diffusion of this type of technology, and reducing the human footprint on Earth.
The work was divided into different phases, with the first months being dedicated to analysis and research in order to understand green roof technology and its current assessment in the existing literature. While defining the indicators applied in the tool, the GreenTA team had the opportunity to develop and publish a literature review gathering the main findings, titled “Green Roof Benefits and Technology Assessment. A Literature Review”, publish with Springer.
The remaining time was dedicated to developing the tool in Excel, providing quantifications and monetary values of the green roof’s benefits. The four categories of benefits measured are outdoor air quality, water management, energy consumption reduction, and social aspects.
Principal Academic Tutor
Marta Bottero, DIST, Politecnico di Torino
Academic Tutors
Cristina Becchio, DENERG, Politecnico di Torino
Mauro Berta, DAD, Politecnico Torino
Caterina Caprioli, DIST, Politecnico di Torino
Stefano Corgnati, DENERG, Politecnico di Torino
Federico Dell’Anna, DIST, Politecnico di Torino
Marta Dell’Ovo, ABC, Politecnico di Milano
Antonio Longo, DAStU / Politecnico di Milano
Andrea Rebecchi, ABC, Politecnico di Milano
Leopoldo Sdino, ABC, Politecnico di Milano
External Institutions
STELLANTIS N.V.
Camerana&Partners
External Tutor
Benedetto Camerana, Camerana&Partners
Team members
Astrid Aguilar Fajardo ,Management Engineering Politecnico Torino
Gabriela Bacchi, Architecture – Built Environment – Interiors Politecnico di Milano
Jorge Cusicanqui Lopez, Civil Engineering – Structures and Infrastructures Politecnico di Torino
Giovanni Gilardi, Management Engineering – Finance Politecnico di Torino
Damodar Maggetti, Civil Engineering for Risk Mitigation – Hydrogeological Risks Politecnico di Milano
Luca Tommasi, Management Engineering – Finance Politecnico di Milano