Window to Westmoreland
October 27, 2006
German Green Roof Expert
Headlines Sustainable Energy Field Day
Even though it seems like a novel idea to many, Jörg Breuning has been passionately promoting - and planting - green roofs for more than 25 years.
In 1980, this German national with training as a landscape architect was in the right place, and armed with the right skills, to catch the wave of this innovative construction concept that blankets building roofs with thousands of living, green plants as a way to reduce eating and cooling costs, stormwater runoff, sound, and pollution. The first complete green roof systems were developed and marketed in Germany in the early 1970s and made more accessible in the late 1980s when innovations made them significantly lighter and cheaper.
Jörg has overseen projects of all types and sizes on both sides of the Atlantic - from the 2,000-square-foot green roof on the Majestic Theater in Gettysburg to a 14-acre green roof on a warehouse in Bondorf, Germany.
He installed a green roof on Carnegie Mellon University's Hamerschlag Hall in May 2005, and most recently a 9,000-square-foot green roof on the GreenForge building on Donohoe Road in Greensburg.
In late September, Jörg oversaw the planting of more than 6,000 succulents at GreenForge to create Westmoreland County's first-ever green roof.
He also has pioneered many innovations in green-roof design and
installation techniques. He is the founder and managing member of Green Roof Service LLC, based in Forest Hill, Maryland.
On October 26, Jörg was in Greensburg to share his experience and insights on green roof technology at a "Sustainable Energy Field Day" held on the Donohoe Center conservation campus in Hempfield Township. The event also provided an opportunity to see the GreenForge green roof, as well as the other sustainable features of the campus, which include a wind turbine, solar array, geothermal system and a barn that has been transformed into a conservation center.
The all-day event featured workshop sessions in which regional experts, including Jörg, presented the technical aspects of the green materials and alternative technologies, as well as an open house where visitors toured the campus and asked questions of the experts.
Sponsors for the "Sustainable Energy Field Day" were: Westmoreland
Conservation District; Penn State Cooperative Extension Westmoreland County; U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development; GreenForge, Inc.; West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund; and PA Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Energy Technology Deployment. The event was partially funded by an environmental education grant from DEP.
For more information, call the Westmoreland Conservation District at 724-
837-5271 (extension 210) or email christie@wcdpa.com.
