Green living envelopes for food and energy production in cities

Abstract

This research explores the potential benefits derived from a proposed green intervention which combines living envelopes (green roofs and green facades) and green energy envelopes (photovoltaic and thermal panels), as a means of addressing the concept of carbon neutral cities. It proposes to take advantage of the environmental contributions that living envelopes provide, in terms of food production and the reduction of energy demand; as well as the energy produced through green energy envelopes such as photovoltaic and thermal panels. This green living envelopes intervention is applied to a specific site of downtown Vancouver, Canada. The research explores the contribution of such a green intervention. It analyses existing conditions of the site in terms of different building types and uses as well as their current energy consumption and CO2 emissions. It then proposes to incorporate living envelopes such as green roofs and facades, as well as green energy envelopes by applying the proposed Vancouver Green Factor. Achieved findings from such a green intervention shows that the total energy consumed by buildings by the greening of roofs and facades would be reduced by 17%. In addition, energy produced through photovoltaic and thermal panels is enough to cover 16% of the energy demand. Moreover, by using green roofs as food producers, 54% of the vegetable demand of the people living in the selected site would be covered, further contributing to a reduction of 4% of the total food production. This translates into a reduction of 45% of CO2 emissions produced by the selected site.