At a recent symposium held in Trois-Rivières and organized by the Société d’Habitation du Québec (SHQ), André Bourassa, the president of the Ordre des architectes du Québec, wanted to put things in their proper perspective concerning the promotion of green roofings. The technology of green roofing is still far from being perfect in Quebec because our climate requests important precautions to take for such projects to be truly efficient and advantageous.
« There are many other techniques to manage water treatment », the speaker said, whereas green roofing, which is still quite experimental in Quebec, has provoked problems on the level of building insurance and in Ontario, several legal proceedings have been started. According to him, one should think about maintenance before beginning with such projects which are always very expensive. According to him, nothing has been proven yet as far amelioration of a building’s air conditioning is concerned.
«The big risk is to consider the green roof as a passport for an ecological project », also said
Mr. Bourassa, all of this while adding that it was important, especially, to avoid the presence of water on the roofs. He believes that one can encourage the green shift with other, equally interesting, projects such as greening the parking structures, and caring for the coating of porous surfaces, or creating green zones on roadsides, etc.
Finally, the speaker said that he was opposed to subsidies to promote green roofs, when this technology is still far from being perfect in Quebec. Many matters still have to be considered concerning the assets of buildings and the efficient maintenance of this kind of roofing.