Eco Friendly Starbuck's

I met clients at the Circle C Starbuck´s at Slaughter and Escarpment in Austin this morning. There was nowhere to sit downstairs so I walked up to a loft and this is what I saw.

I had known about this eco friendly roof before and even know the guy who designed it, but I had not seen it this close up. From the photo I took this morning it looks like there are a lot of rectangular containers with prairie grass, wildflowers and even cactus in the containers. The Texas wildflowers were amazing this spring and my guess is that this green, eco friendly roof looked pretty amazing with thousands of wildflowers blooming. The roof does not cover just Starbuck´s, but other businesses in the building as well.

So why would the building designer do this? First, it is an environmental statement and Austin big about being green. Second, there are actually benefits from doing this. First, what is a green roof? A green roof is one that is covered with some kind of vegetation. This vegetation is some kind of soil or other growing medium and sits on an impervious membrane that does not allow water to get to the actual roof of the structure.

There are number of benefits to having a green roof. First, it can minimize run-off during heavy rain because the soil will absorb some of the rain. A green roof can also provide excellent insulation and can help the building cut cooling and heating costs dramatically. Not being traditional roofing material like bitumen, composition shingle or tile, there is no dark material to soak up the heat. The effect may be minimal, but this helps cut the heat in an urban area full of paved streets and heat absorbing roofs.

If you look closely enough at the photo I took, you will see sprinkler heads. These roofs benefit from the winter and spring rains, but during the hot Austin summer, this one will need supplemental water.

While loading a car seat for the youngest child into my car, the dad sent the girls into Starbucks to find their mom and check out the roof. They thought it was pretty cool and asked who cuts the grass. The good news about the kind of eco friendly roof on this Starbuck's is that it looks like it was designed so the grass would not get tall enough to be a problem.

If you ever get to Austin and want a cup of coffee, check out the Circle C Starbuck´s and while you're there, check out the roof.

Author Bio:

Sam Chapman is an Austin real estate agent who is also very active in the community.