Good practice:

Green Roof of the municipality’s Town Hall in Gournes

Following the obligations and commitments arising from the Covenant of Mayors regarding the energy efficiency improvement of the municipal buildings, the Municipality of Hersonisos has decided to use all the available funds towards that direction (national funds, own recourses, European projects). During the implementation of the E2STORMED European project that deals with urban stormwater sustainable management, the Municipality of Hersonisos invested 4.000€ to implement the green roof project on the Town Hall. The Town Hall is an old and bad maintained building. Its roof covers a surface of 30m2. Following the successful green roof implementation on the Treasury building of the Ministry of Financial Affairs in Athens – Greece, the project has been designed as a pilot application of a green roof to demonstrate the building insulation and landscape enhancement. The design uses an innovative technique designed for Mediterranean climatic conditions, which constitutes of a light-weight construction even when wet that can keep water and maintain vegetation. This technique is a combination of geo-membranes, soil and geocellular pillows, which form the base of the green roof and upon which the plants, that are endemic aromatic species, are planted. The green roof is self-maintained, demonstrates significant energy saving, it has improved comfort conditions for the building users and is also used by the Municipality to disseminate the idea of energy efficiency to the public.

4.000,00 € total budget for implementation
0 € management or maintenance costs
Human recourses: 1 agronomist, 2 workers

• Increase energy efficiency: improvement of comfort conditions inside the building regarding heating and cooling
• Positive cost-benefit ratio: approx. 20% reduction in the building’s electricity consumption
• Raise awareness: demonstration site that supports dissemination and public awareness on energy efficiency measures
• Innovation: the combination of materials and measures that results in a low budget, self-maintained, energy efficiency improving application

The project was easily implemented without any difficulties.

• Successful implementation of energy efficiency application that does not require additional works on the building (construction enhancement, watering and drainage system)
• The applied technique creates an environment with minimum to none management requirements
• Easy to replicate to Mediterranean countries
• Demonstration site to disseminate the idea of energy efficiency to the public