Let’s Put Green Roofs on Schools and Help Students and Teachers

Did you ever have a school assignment that involved growing a seedling, nurturing its progress and watching it bloom? Did you ever do that on the roof of your school building? Currently, there is a bill in Congress that could make this a reality for our country’s learners. Not only that, it would help mitigate climate change, reduce the urban heat island, create jobs, and grow our economy for generations to come.

The Public School Green Rooftop Program (HR 1863), sponsored by U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez, D-NY, would establish a $500 million grant program for installing and maintaining green roof systems on public elementary and secondary school buildings. Though still underused, green roofs are catching on across the nation as their benefits — and societal necessity — become more and more clear. 

A green roof is a layer of vegetation planted in engineered growing media over a drainage layer, filter cloth, and root-repellent and waterproofing system on a roof. Green roofs not only improve a building’s aesthetics and energy performance, they provide a multitude of economic and community benefits. Green roofs are job creators. HR 1863 would create 29,000 total direct, indirect, and induced job-years over a 50-year period. About 5,570 of those direct jobs would be in construction and maintenance, and more than 23,000 indirect and induced job-years would be created as a result.  These are good American jobs growing plants, blending growing medium, manufacturing irrigation and drainage systems, not to mention the design, construction, and ongoing maintenance employment. 

Beyond their economic value, green roofs offer educational value, creating new opportunities for students in STEM, as well as access to physical activity outdoors. The data behind the educational, emotional, and physiological benefits for young people is clear. Children who grow a vegetable themselves are more likely to eat it, and time outdoors boosts physical and mental health.  Some of the children that would be served by this legislation have no idea where there food comes from, and little access to safe green space in their communities. 

An anonymous survey of 160 first- through fifth-grade students that had access to a green roof on their inner city school in New York City was completed in June 2021.  The results indicate the emotional, social and educational benefits that kids and communities experience from green roofs. When asked how they feel on the green roof, students and teachers alike used words like “happy,” “calm,” “peaceful” and “relaxed,” and noted the profound value of access to green space.

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