Green our Rooftop

The Victorian Government is committed to investing in green infrastructure and will build a green roof on top of one Treasury Place.

The green roof project is a joint initiative between the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and the City of Melbourne, with each contributing funding of $1.25 million.

The green roof will improve biodiversity, contribute to urban cooling, reduce stormwater runoff, reduce energy consumption and costs by providing insulation for the building, and showcase how green infrastructure can help cities adapt to climate change.

The 1500m² green roof will act as a demonstration and research roof that other councils, governments and industry can learn from. The University of Melbourne will use the green roof at one Treasury Place to research the suitability of different plant species, irrigation models and designs, and will consider how green roof uptake can be expanded.

It is hoped that this project will inspire action to retrofit other buildings across Victoria.

Photo: City of Melbourne

Construction on the green roof at one Treasury Place is expected to begin early in 2020, and be completed by June 2020.

The City of Melbourne, Melbourne Water and the Victorian Government are offering collaborative research grants and postgraduate scholarships for the Green our Rooftop program.

Funding is available for high-quality research to support the future growth of green roofs in Melbourne.

The grant applications opened on 1 July 2019 and closed on 12 August 2019. Total funding of $400,000 will be available, awarded to small and large projects, and postgraduate scholarships.

To find out more visit the City of Melbourne’s Green Rooftop project page.

For enquiries, please contact greeningmelbourne@melbourne.vic.gov.au.

A green roof is a vegetated landscape built up from a series of layers that are installed on a roof surface as ‘loose laid’ or modular (that is, installed layer by layer on the roof or as pre-prepared layers in trays).

Green roofs are constructed for multiple reasons - as spaces for people to use, as architectural features, to add value to property or to achieve environmental benefits (for example, stormwater capture and retention, improved species diversity, or insulation of a building against heat gain or loss).

Vegetation on green roofs is planted in a growing substrate (a specially designed soil substitution medium) that may range in depth from 50 mm to more than a metre, depending on the weight capacity of the building’s roof and the aims of the design.

The Growing Green Guide (PDF, 16.9 MB) outlines a number of documented benefits of green infrastructure in urban areas, including to:

• Help cool our urban areas
• Help manage stormwater by capturing water where it falls and using it to irrigate green infrastructure and
• Reduce energy consumption in buildings – green infrastructure behaves like insulation and can reduce internal building temperature fluctuations

There are other reported benefits that relate to humidity, aesthetics, noise reduction and local air quality improvement. There is also a growing body of research showing that increasing the number of living plants in an urban area can improve our mental health and wellbeing.

More information about green roofs, climate adaptation, and Victorian Government plans and strategies that support green infrastructure work can be found below:

• Green roofs
• Growing Green Guide (PDF, 16.9 MB)
• Climate change information and resources
• Victoria’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan 2017-2020
• Protecting Victoria’s Environment - Biodiversity 2037
• Water for Victoria 2016