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Media Release

7 April, 2008

Green roof scoops green award

Mayor Bob Harvey is delighted with a national landscape planning award received by the Waitakere City Council for its green roof.

The council’s green roof - the first lightweight green roof in New zealand - came up trumps at the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects Resene Pride of Place Landscape Awards 2008 winning two awards, a gold award for communication and promotion and an award of excellence for sustainability.

“This is a tremendous award and it shows that we are leading the way in this environmental field,” Harvey says.

“Now that this has been recognised, it is our job is to ensure that we consistently incorporate more of this type of environmentally friendly technology into our buildings,” he says.

The green roof was built in 2006 on top of the new Civic Centre at Waitakere Central, in the heart of Henderson

In announcing the Sustainability Award of Excellence – Communication and Promotion, the judges said that 500 square metre green roof “brilliantly articulates a 21st century sustainable landscape solution.”

“It will undoubtedly act as a catalyst for future research and development in this technology both locally and nationally,” the NZILA judges said.

In addition to creating a habitat for birds, butterflies and other insects a green roof reduces the impact stormwater run-off in urban areas with high roof coverage - the roofs store rainfall, working like sponges to reduce and slow run-off into stormwater pipes, cumulatively helping lower downstream impacts of flooding, stream bank erosion, and stream degradation.

The Waitakere City Council’s goal was to create a green roof specific to the New Zealand situation, and at least in part, be reflective of plant species found in the Waitakere environment and to create an organic patchwork of plants which will move and change over the years with competition and natural growth styles.

The council also received landscape design awards for its Japanese garden and the Henderson Library Plaza.

ENDS

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