30 CONNECTICUT GREEN GUIDE • FALL 2016 www.CTGreenGuide.com
GREEN WARRIOR: NAME HERE
PHOTO | ????
A roof of changing colors
W
hen New Milford Hospital
built its new emergency
department last year, de-
signers were particularly sensitive
to how the roof would look from
surrounding residential streets at
higher elevations.
A big black rubber rectangle
wouldn't provide the aesthetic desired
by the Western Connecticut Health
Network-owned hospital. So instead,
New Milford decided to install a
6,000-square-foot green roof covered
with flowering plants called sedum.
The black rubber is still there,
but hidden underneath the plant-
ings, which change colors in
different seasons — green in the
summer, yellow in the spring and
reddish brown in the fall.
Besides creating a prettier view for
neighbors, the $180,000 roof's other
major benefit is it reduces cooling
costs in the new emergency depart
-
ment because the roof surface doesn't
get as hot during the day.
The plantings also reduce rain-
water runoff and the nitrogen it
brings to area waterways, and in
the end are expected to extend the
life of the roof to 40 years or more,
because they block the sun's ultra-
violet radiation.
New Milford hasn't done an
exact cost-benefit analysis for the
roof, and it has no baseline energy
consumption to make comparisons,
since the emergency department is
new. But Charlie Geyer, site director,
estimates that the roof will pay for
itself in 12 to 15 years.
The green roof was supplied by
Maryland's Conservation Technol-
ogy and installed by Danbury's
Barrett Inc.
ECOmpany: NEW MILFORD HOSPITAL
PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED
HEADQUARTERS: New Milford
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:
Dr. Thomas Koobatian
FOUNDED: 1921
EMPLOYEES: 220
WEBSITE:
www.newmilfordhospital.org
New Milford Hospital's key
motivations for installing a green roof
on its new emergency department
were aesthetics for the surrounding
neighborhood and reducing cooling
costs in the summer.
Did you know?
One of the challenges of green
roofs is that they require sturdier
construction to support the weight
of plants and soil. According to
Maryland's Conservation Technology,
green roofs must be able to support
as much as 100 pounds more per
square foot than a normal roof.