Con Ed Finishes Green Roof in Long Island City

Photo of Con Edison's LIC green roof courtesy Con Edison.

The Con Edison training and conference facility in Long Island City, Queens has joined a small but growing family of buildings with green roofs, which absorb heat, reduce the need for air conditioning, and help improve air quality. According to the Sun, Con Edison projects that the green roof will save the building up to 30% in energy costs. There are now 21,000 plants atop the three-story facility, including 15 varieties of sedum, a shrub like plant typically found in desert climates which can absorb rainwater and is resistant to pests.

Because of high labor and transportation prices in New York, green roofs have not caught on as quickly here as in other American cities and in Europe, the Times notes. But last month Governor Paterson approved tax abatements for developers and building owners who install a layer of vegetation on the roof. The credits are worth about $4.50 per square foot of vegetation; Paterson likes green roofs because they can absorb as much as 70% of the rain that would otherwise end up flooding the sewage system during heavy rainfalls, potentially sparing our waterways millions of gallons of polluted water.

As for Con Edison, the company spent $200,000 to install 1,350 trays filled with the plants, which sit in a mixture of volcanic rock, sandstone and other absorbent stone. Columbia University’s Center for Climate Systems Research will evaluate the benefits using rooftop sensors to measure the temperature, wind and water runoff; the findings will then be used to promote green roofs to customers.

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By John Del Signore in News on September 1, 2008 1:58 PM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

This is nice but why not put up solar panels instead (tax incentives aside)? If every large roof area in NYC had some sort of solar on it, the energy savings would hopefully save the region from another coal-fired power plant. ConEd should be demonstarting alt. energy and leave the plantings to the City Parks Department.

Novanglus

Spiritof76, I

Spirit of 76

Wait till the bugs get to be a problem.

Was your tiny mind unable to comprehend the sentence that says "There are now 21,000 plants atop the three-story facility, including 15 varieties of sedum, a shrub like plant typically found in desert climates which can absorb rainwater and is resistant to pests"? Maybe, just maybe ConEd did a little bit of research before doing this rather than just jumping to conclusions like some Gothamist commenters.

ConEd's green roof is supposed to save up to 30% in energy costs, but what is the breakeven point on its initial expenditure of $200,000? Even with the tax credits, it seems very pricey at this point.

The tax credits are worth almost $50,000 on that. If it takes several years to make the money back, is it so bad to think in the long term rather than just demanding instant gratification like so many public companies and their stockholders do? That's not taking into account savings that don't impact the company directly. How much less pollution would we have in the rivers if there was less storm overflow in the sewer system thanks to green roofs?

They'll probably find some way to screw it up, since it is ConEd.

Yeah, not everybody can be perfect like the great Toby von Meistersinger, who has so much time on his hands that he loves to go around intentionally screwing with Wikipedia entries. At least Con Ed (and Wikipedia contributors) is trying to create something, rather than just going around messing things up and criticizing. Quite frankly, the articles you write on Gothamist suck, too, so I wouldn't brag about those.

just saying

"[ConEd] spent $200,000 to install 1,350 trays filled with the plants."

ConEd's green roof is supposed to save up to 30% in energy costs, but what is the breakeven point on its initial expenditure of $200,000? Even with the tax credits, it seems very pricey at this point.