Lunch 'n Learn | Casey Boyter

On Wednesday, October 16th, Casey Boyter joined us for a Lunch ‘n Learn explaining her experience designing, building, and maintaining green roofs here in the Austin area, especially with regard to the materials that go into this process. Casey outlined some of the parameters that go into green roof design such as accessibility—can the roof be walked on, or not—and dormancy periods—does the roof actually need to stay green year round, or should its plants naturally go dormant during certain seasons?



Often, material choices play a big role in Casey’s work. For example, inorganic sediment is needed in soil to sustain vegetation, as these materials will provide nutrients but not offgas like the organic components in soil. Commonly, these sediments are fired at high heat, but Casey prefers to use a lava-rock shale which has much lower embodied energy, allowing for the same rich soil, but with a lower carbon-footprint. Decisions like these are an important part of the complex process of creating a green roof, and offer design potential in making these systems more efficient and sustainable.



For more information on Casey’s work, visit her website here.