Skip to main content

Green roofs

#GreenRoofsCambridge

Campaign Update

WE DID IT! More than two years ago, attendees at a community meeting of the Cambridge Chapter of Mothers Out Front dared to envision what their city could be if its rooftops were green. On May 3, 2021, six city councilors favorably supported pollinator-friendly meadows and biosolar roofing solutions for some roofs of 25,000+ square feet.

Our Mission

Cambridge Mothers Out Front is moving forward to bring green roofs to our city! We envision a time when buildings in our city will have pollinator gardens, meadows, and farms on their roofs. To achieve this vision, the City Council needs to fully support the revised Green Roofs ordinance that requires vegetative or biosolar – solar panels and vegetation combined  – on rooftops of new construction of buildings 25,000+ square feet.

Watch Our Video

See our shared vision come to life. From soaring shots of Cambridge’s current black, heat-emitting rooftops to the images of vibrant green rooftops in many other U.S. cities, we see that magnificent possibilities abound!

Learn More

The many benefits of green roofs convinced us to make #GreenRoofsCambridge our premier campaign and guide us as we make this happen. Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York City, Denver, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon are among the many cities with green roofs. It’s long past time for Cambridge to create green roofs too. 

Here is a summary of these outstanding benefits:

Living rooftop plantings:
  • Absorb carbon dioxide and clean pollutants from the air
  • Cool urban heat islands
  • Preserve buildings’ energy through rooftop insulation
  • Reduce stormwater flooding 
  • Provide habitat for pollinators
  • Can be used for gardens and farms to grow local crops and address food insecurity
  • Beautify our city by adding to its green space
  • Increase people’s well-being and workers’ productivity
Biosolar, combining vegetation and solar panels:
  • Provides clean, renewable energy that lessens our dependence on carbon emitting fossil fuels
  • Increases energy efficiency by adding vegetative layer of rooftop insulation
  • Lengthens the roof’s longevity, and the roof requires less maintenance 
  • Solar panels shade and cool the vegetation 
  • Vegetation boosts the solar panels’ production by up to 16%

 Resources

Click the links below to access our green roof resources:

Join our Campaign!

Want to help bring green roofs to Cambridge? Click here to send an email expressing your interest.

Join the conversation on Twitter using #GreenRoofsCambridge!

Subscribe to emails

Stay up to date with the latest.

Volunteer in Cambridge

Join the Cambridge Chapter