Editorial
Front Page - Friday, May 28, 2010
Museum educates ‘first line of defense’ with green roof
Erica Tuggle
Mayor Ron Littlefield spoke about Chattanooga’s environmental progress at the unveiling of the Creative Discovery Museum’s new green roof. The project was funded by GreenSpaces and Stein Construction and will add to the Museum’s initiative to educate children on the importance of environmental awareness.
- Erica Tuggle
With the introduction of the Creative Discovery Museum’s green roof, the wheels continue to turn on the focus of educating children and their families about the importance of environmental awareness and preservation.
The green roof covers the top of the museum with sedum that is comprised of eight different types of plant life, says Randy Whorton of EVS, Inc. (Engineered Verdant Solutions), which worked with Stein Construction in developing and installing the new roof. The 3,000 square feet of plant material is highly heat and drought tolerant, made to resist insect damage and disease as well as providing a hostile environment for weed development, Whorton says. As part of the succulent family, this material can go three weeks without water, and since the soil is mostly rock, it will never dissipate, he says.
Whorton says, “You can stomp on it, dance on it; can’t kill it.”
Plant boxes filled with Black-eyed Susans, Echinacea and other seasonal flowers were also part of this development funded by GreenSpaces and Stein construction.
The roof itself has several benefits, Whorton says. It will reduce summer cooling costs, noise up to 40 decibels and storm water runoff by up to 90 percent. It acts as a buffer to acid rain by filtering it through the plant life, provides a habitat for wildlife and the museum’s honeybees and will provide new educational opportunities.
“This [green roof] is a really great one because it is such a good educational aspect,” he says. “It is going to hopefully teach a lot of kids about the benefits of green roofs.”
He says the biggest problem with green roofs is public awareness, as people do not realize how beneficial they are. This will be a good start to make them more popular throughout the city, he says.
Yet, this is just part of the additions the Creative Discovery Museum is making for environmental education. For one, the tower of the museum has signs posted throughout explaining the surrounding LEED buildings that patrons see as they climb. The museum also plans to add solar panels to their roof later on, says Henry Schulson, the executive director of the museum.
Their temporary exhibit, “Good for You: Healthy Fun on the Run,” includes a mock garden and kitchen that educates children on where food comes from and introduces them to healthy food choices, Schulson says. The museum has also partnered with the Bioenergy Science Center at Oak Ridge to include information about biofuels and alternative energy in museum classrooms. These efforts will join the rooftop garden the museum has established that is growing rosemary, eggplant, strawberries, switch grass and more. Visitors to the museum can also expect to see an expansion of the bee exhibit, Schulson says.
Mayor Ron Littlefield spoke at the public unveiling of the green roof with acknowledgment of the city’s growth from days of lax water regulations to the recent LEED certified buildings sprouting up throughout town.
He says, “What we see here, with this step on environment, brings this to a world effort because it is bringing issues into the classroom and to children that need that early exposure.”
Mayor Littlefield says growing up he remembers walking across a creek to find the water hot and running with whatever dye the industries around were using that day, but now, we live in a different world of environmental consciousness.
He says he hopes these efforts will be a filter to educate the community on the need to keep river and city cleanliness at its peak.
Doug Stein, CEO of Stein Construction, says he also sees the huge strides the community has made since he was a child. He says that although his father and grandfather worked to pave the city, he thinks of it for him as a different opportunity to help make these buildings more environmentally sound. He challenged the audience at the unveiling of the green roof to think about ways to do something similarly green in their own part of the world.
“All paved surfaces present an opportunity to enhance our water quality, slow the run off, and to make our home a greener place to live,” he says.
Jeff Cannon, director of Greenspaces says, although they focus on buildings and how to make sure they are causing less environmental harm, the primary mission of Greenspaces is to educate children in what he calls “the first line of defense.” Greenspaces is working with 27 different LEED projects in the city, which is a big deal for a city of this size, he says.
Schulson finished the unveiling with a call to action for the town to bring their kids to the museum and show them what they can learn.
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