Hear Amanda Marlin and Fiona Black talk about the expanded green roof on Tantramar Report, back on August 4, 2021:
Strawberries, blueberries and native wild berries. Chives, thyme, oregano, sage and lavender. Echinacea, yarrow, and black-eyed susans. The garden at Sackville Town Hall is chock-a-block full of edibles and native plants, some of which will hopefully go to help supply the Sackville Food Bank. But it’s not the plants in the garden that are necessarily remarkable, it’s the location: on the roof.
Sackville town hall has had a green roof since it was built more than 10 years ago, and this summer the green was expanded to cover another 1900 square feet.
Amanda Marlin, director of EOS Eco-Energy, helped plant the garden, and also secured the funding to make it happen.
The town signed an agreement with EOS to expand the green roof back in November when the organization first applied to Environment and Climate Change Canada for funding. EOS also did a fundraiser through the Small Change Fund, a crowdfunding platform, “so local residents helped contribute to the green roof project as well,” says Marlin.
Mount Allison is also involved. A grant from the student-funded Green Investment Fund, as well as some funding from the Faculty of Arts, paid for half the new plants on the roof.
Marlin says 27 cubic yards of soil were hauled up to the roof to create the expanded garden, which required an engineering assessment to make sure the roof could withstand the weight. The soil is just 7 inches deep, and the roof can be quite hot and windy, so drought-resistant, shorter plants are favoured. And Marlin is expecting to learn about what plants do better or worse as the garden progresses. “Planting things is always an experiment,” says Marlin, “on a rooftop or not.”
There are a few technical benefits of a green roof, says Marlin. The soil and plants absorb rainwater and so reduce runoff during rain events, contributing to stormwater management. The multiple layers involved in the construction of the rooftop garden also contribute to insulating and extending the life of the roof, she says.
Then there are the benefits of adding more green, with increasing local biodiversity and food for pollinators. The green roof will also provide a space for educational events, and it’s a great stress reducer. “Just the benefits of being around plants in nature, whether it’s for town staff, or people who come up here and enjoy,” Marlin says. The green roof is open to the public during business hours of town hall, and is accessible from the lobby area on the second floor of the building.
Marlin is hoping Sackville’s green roof will serve as a demonstrator project for other buildings in New Brunswick. “They’re not that common in New Brunswick compared to other places,” says Marlin. “So we really wanted to have the chance to promote and to learn about them as well.”
SACKVILLE’S SECOND GREEN ROOF COMING SOON TO MOUNT ALLISON
Fiona Black is a Religious Studies professor and director of Mount Allison’s Community Engaged Learning program.
Black says Mount Allison is planning its own green roof for the roof of the Wallace McCain Student Centre, which may start construction in late fall. “There’s actually a space that was designed to be able to take a green roof one day,” says Black, adding that the planning and design will be informed by the experience at town hall.
Black is hoping to use both the town of Sackville green roof and the future Mount Allison green roof as a location for the community engaged learning program. “What we’ll be doing in our green roof, eventually, and hope to be doing [at the town hall green roof], is bringing some students in through the Marshview Engage Program,” says Black. “So they will be coming up here and learning about climate change and other issues.”
Another Mount Allison professor, Barb Clayton, has plans for incorporating visits to the green roof in a class on environmental ethics. And Black is hoping that Indigenous partners with the Institute for Transformational Education, as well as Marshview students, will have a hand in helping choose plants and design the student centre rooftop garden.