Quantifying carbon sequestration of various green roof and ornamental landscape systems

An environmental cost-benefit analysis of alternative green roofing strategies

“…Finally, we show in Table 4 that the carbon uptake of the green roof ecosystem is another significant environmental benefit, as rooftops might be one of the few opportunities for vegetated space in urban areas with high CO 2 concentrations. Although the carbon uptake reported in this study represents an intermediate storage rather than long term sequestration, it has been found that green roofs can have significant sequestration benefits similar to native ground vegetation (Whittinghill et al, 2014). This study does not account for carbon losses due to plant die off during the winter and subsequent mineralization of litter or carbon loss due to drainage.…”

Carbon sequestration potential of green roofs using mixed-sewage-sludge substrate in Chengdu World Modern Garden City

“…An extensive green roof with soil depth 5 mm and various kinds of Sedum (S. acre, S. album, S. kamtshaticum, and S. spurium) had the carbon sequestration of 1187 g C m À2 (Getter et al, 2009). Carbon sequestration of the green roofs mainly depended on the selected plants and substrates (Liu 2006;Getter et al, 2009;Cui 2011;Saadatian et al, 2013;Whittinghill et al, 2014). Liu (2006) studied the ecological effect and CO 2 sequestration and oxygen release in common plants on green roofs.…”

“…Ornamental landscapes both in-ground and on green roofs have the ability to sequester carbon; the landscape systems that were able to sequester the most carbon contained higher amounts of woody plant structures and higher plant biomass volumes, such as the three shrub landscape systems and the herbaceous perennials and grasses, native prairie mix, and ornamental green roof landscape systems (Whittinghill et al, 2014). The Sedum and prairie green roofs contained less carbon than their counterpart in-ground landscape systems, suggesting that although green roofs do sequester a small amount of carbon, greater benefit can be achieved in ground level landscape systems (Whittinghill et al, 2014). Ornamental landscapes have good potential for carbon sequestration but management practices can affect their net carbon sequestration and the permanence of the carbon sequestration (Whittinghill et al, 2014).…”

“…The Sedum and prairie green roofs contained less carbon than their counterpart in-ground landscape systems, suggesting that although green roofs do sequester a small amount of carbon, greater benefit can be achieved in ground level landscape systems (Whittinghill et al, 2014). Ornamental landscapes have good potential for carbon sequestration but management practices can affect their net carbon sequestration and the permanence of the carbon sequestration (Whittinghill et al, 2014). The green roof landscape systems sequestered more carbon than shown by previous research and their use may reduce the payback period of carbon embodied in the green roof materials from 15 years to less than 3 years (Whittinghill et al, 2014).…”

“…Ornamental landscapes have good potential for carbon sequestration but management practices can affect their net carbon sequestration and the permanence of the carbon sequestration (Whittinghill et al, 2014). The green roof landscape systems sequestered more carbon than shown by previous research and their use may reduce the payback period of carbon embodied in the green roof materials from 15 years to less than 3 years (Whittinghill et al, 2014). Related research suggested that the first choice of green roof plants was native plants (MacIvor and Lundholm, 2011), because they could adapt well to the local climate.…”