Skip to Content

Green Roof

In June 2009, we completed the installation of a new 704-square metre green roof at our headquarters in Toronto. The project transformed an adjacent paved terrace on the 9th floor of Esri Canada offices into a green roof that provides important business and environmental benefits.

Esri Canada's Garden in the Sky

Our rooftop garden provides outdoor space for formal office meetings, corporate events and informal lunch breaks, and delivers a visually-stimulating and enhanced workplace environment to our employees, helping to improve productivity.

It also helps reduce the urban heat effect by cooling and filtering the surrounding air.  It provides energy savings by reducing heating and cooling costs, as plant layers provide additional insulation to the structure beneath.  The green roof also retains up to 75% of summertime precipitation, and delays and filters storm water run-off, reducing sewer overflows.  It provides an additional habitat for birds, butterflies and other wildlife.

We selected only environment-friendly materials for our green roof – roof modules are constructed with 100% recycled polypropylene; module plants are obtained from local nurseries; and wood for benches used on site came from a managed forest.

Our green roof project qualified for a grant under the 2009 Eco-Roof Incentive Program for Green Roofs in Toronto. With our green roof, we are supporting the City of Toronto's initiative to become a healthier city.

Awards Received

  • Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Award of Excellence 
  • Green Toronto Award
  • Ontario Association of Landscape Architects' Certificate of Merit for Service to the Environment
  • Greenroofs.com's Love the Earth, Plant a Roof! Earth Day Photo Contest Winner
  • Design Exchange Award