Amazon’s first tower in downtown Seattle is purposefully being built in a dense urban area, and green roofing experts Columbia Green Technologies (CGT) is a part of the building’s sustainable design. Columbia Green is a leading company in green roofing that has worked on projects in the Northwest, Canada and along the East Coast. The CGT team transformed Amazon’s Doppler and Meeting Center rooftops to manage stormwater, retaining water that would otherwise flow into the city’s stormwater system.
“Green roofing has grown tremendously in the last few years because building owners are realizing the benefits of utilizing green roofs on empty space instead of having a retention tank,” said Vanessa Keitges, CEO of Columbia Green. “Especially in an area where it rains a lot, this makes sense. More companies are also changing their building environments to make healthier places for people to live and work – greenery and green roofs are part of this.”
This sustainable lifestyle, combined with fiscal reasons and efficiencies, are the reasons Amazon chose to work with Columbia Green Technologies on this green roof project.
“We have the opportunity to do things right,” said John Schoettler, director of Amazon’s global real estate and facilities. “Our urban campus is part of the broader city scape and provides our employees with all of the urban amenities they would want. We also focused to ensure the environment we created is sustainable, a place employees will feel good about working in. These new green roof buildings help us do that.”
Columbia Green Roof Systems
Columbia Green has a variety of different green roof systems that can be used depending on the needs and design of the project—such as rainfall, vegetation and type of roof. The Amazon project used CGT’s Layered green roof with pre-grown sedum tiles.
The depth of the ‘growing media’ (green roof engineered soil) can be adjusted according to both the plants selected and the water retention goals for the project. Deeper growing media can retain more of the rain that falls on it than a shallower system, decreasing the amount of roof runoff.
Larger plant material like shrubs and perennials need deeper media to support their roof structure than small plants like sedum. Columbia Green states their system is unique in the green roof industry in that it offers a number of different green roof systems including Trays, Layered and Planted-in-Place trays—with built in irrigation to meet the specific needs of each customer.
Components of the green roof system
The Columbia Green’s Extensive Layered green roof system was installed on the Amazon project. It is a flexible system that allows for variable growing media depths from 3” to 36” or more. This system can be used on thin profile sedum green roofs as well as on rooftop gardens and plaza decks. The layered system allows for more planting options and overall design flexibility.
The components of this layered system include a drainage layer that sits above the roof membrane (typically over a root barrier). The drainage layer prevents any ponding, and moves excess water efficiently to the nearest roof drain.
A filter fabric is then attached to the top of the drainage layer to hold the media in place. The Columbia Green Water Retention layer rests on the drainage layer and provides supplemental moisture retention for the plants. The growing media then sits on top of the Moisture Retention Layer.
Columbia Green Growing Media is engineered with lightweight blends of inorganic and organic components that are regionally sourced. Plantings are regionally sourced to meet the vision of project designers.
Design elements of the roof project
Amazon wanted to incorporate nature into their designs and provide a work environment that would reduce stress as well as spur innovation in their new headquarters in downtown Seattle.
Designers used a pattern of locally grown sedum tiles in different colors (provided by Columbia Green) to add visual interest to the green roof for the employees. The green roof systems can be adjusted to meet both the weight limits of a building structure, and the final look and planting goals that the designers have for the project.
Amazon now has a green roof, which will be joined by thousands of diverse plants and trees inside of the NBBJ-designed glass spheres which are slated for completion in 2018. Upon completion, it might be difficult to find a ‘greener’ and perhaps more memorable spot in any urban center with the plant-filled spheres and CGT’s Green Roof System.
The Columbia Green Technologies/Amazon green roof project displays an ongoing trend of partnerships with large companies to further resilient building. CGT will continue to bring the green lifestyle to many industries as part of building the resilient model in the Pacific Northwest.
About Columbia Green Technologies
Columbia Green Technologies offers innovative green roof solutions for extensive, semi-intensive and intensive roof gardens. Cities across the world are using vegetative roofs to manage environmental issues related to stormwater, urban heat islands and loss of habitat. Our products were engineered to maximize stormwater retention and create an environment for optimal plant health. We partner with leading manufacturers of waterproofing materials to offer a complete, single-source warrantied solution for every type of roof construction. We are committed to improving our environment and economy; our products are made in the USA and support low-impact development, LEED buildings. For more information, visit http://columbia-green.com.
About Amazon
Amazon.com opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995. The company is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about.
