(Springfield, MO) -- The people who work inside a new building help protect you and now the building itself will help protect the planet.
This may not look like roofing material, but it is. The plants will be growing on the roof of the new Springfield-Greene County 911 Building.
The system uses trays and low-maintenance plants called sedum.
It takes a lot of plants to cover more than 14,000 square feet, but a federal grant is helping pay for it.
Installers say the green plants make the roof green in another way, too.
"It absorbs a lot of the thermal energy, helps reduce the cost of the building," says Nick Staats of Kirberg Company. "It gets the stormwater drain-off, it helps reduce that and it protects the roof system because you're not having the u-v light going over it."
After the initial watering, crews say the plants should take care of themselves.
This may not look like roofing material, but it is. The plants will be growing on the roof of the new Springfield-Greene County 911 Building.
The system uses trays and low-maintenance plants called sedum.
It takes a lot of plants to cover more than 14,000 square feet, but a federal grant is helping pay for it.
Installers say the green plants make the roof green in another way, too.
"It absorbs a lot of the thermal energy, helps reduce the cost of the building," says Nick Staats of Kirberg Company. "It gets the stormwater drain-off, it helps reduce that and it protects the roof system because you're not having the u-v light going over it."
After the initial watering, crews say the plants should take care of themselves.
