Green-Tech

A new 14-storey hotel in Manchester with stunning "Jenga-style" tiered planting boxes at various heights creating a juxtaposition of cantilevers, inspired by Milan's Bosco Verticale. Green-tech supplied 48 cubic metres of intensive lightweight roof soil, along with 4,000 litres of lightweight expanded clay aggregate.

The urban rain garden at Upper Pitt Street, is an exemplar project (100% externally funded through the EU URBAN GreenUP project - www.urbangreenup.eu), showcasing how landscape design combined with SuDS principles can be successfully retrofitted across our cityscapes.Green considerations:As part of any urban regeneration, it is vital that consideration is given to the green infrastructure, either by making sure we don’t lose what was there, or ideally, improving and increasing it. There are few arguments these days that don’t support additional green infrastructure, any way we can get it. The benefits are many and indisputable: the cooling effect from trees in particular, both from the shade and the moisture they give off through transpiration; the filtering of pollution and carbon sequestration via the leaves and the substrates; and last but certainly not least, the attenuation of rainwater, slowing down the flow of storm water into our already overburdened drainage system. Let’s not forget the potential for added biodiversity; the added shrubs, trees or wildflowers providing vital habitats to bees, insects, and other pollinators.But if we look more closely at water attenuation; two of the best and most cost-effective ways of dealing with rainwater and runoff are green roofs, or at ground level, rain gardens. Rain gardens are one of the leading types of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), put in place to try to mimic water run-off as closely as possible to that in the countryside.Very much like bio-swales, rain gardens are designed to take water runoff from impermeable surfaces such as roads and pavements. They filter contaminants and debris out such as silt and vehicular contaminants washed off the road surface by rainfall, whilst at the same time holding onto the excess water and slowing down the release, which in turn reduces the pressure on the storm drains. They are effective in removing up 90% of pollutants, and up to 80% of sediments from this surface water runoff.Liverpool’s urban rain garden is designed to partially attenuate water within Polypipe’s ‘Permavoid’ underground storage crates. This stored water provides passive irrigation to the vegetation above, as well as storm water attenuation.Rain gardens will usually feature plants that can withstand waterlogging up to 48 hours at a time, as most swales will drain over a period of 12 – 48 hours. They can also feature large rocks and pebbles which also help in the filtration process. In the case of the urban rain garden in Liverpool, plants were also chosen for their drought resilience, to suit the specially blended free-draining nature of the substrate below.Green-tech involvement:Green-tech has been manufacturing soils since 2004 under the brand name Green-tree. These soils are widely regarded to be amongst the best in the country, suitable for a wide range of standard and specialist landscaping purposes.With the increasing popularity and demand, in many cases as part of the planning conditions, for green roofs and rain gardens, Green-tree offers a wide range of lightweight green roof and podium substrates, as well as rain garden and bioretention soils, all using our ever-popular British Standard manufactured soil as a base. In this instance, as Liverpool had no previous experience using rain gardens as a “green solution”, it was proposed to create a test area to demonstrate what could be achieved.Working in partnership with the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI Ltd), Green-tech supplied three different bioretention blends for testing:Blend 1 is the standard Green-tree bioretention mix, featuring screened silica sand, green compost and blown clay particles. This provides sufficient permeability to avoid waterlogging, while at the same time providing enough nutrients and organic matter for the shrubs and other vegetation.Blend 2 is Green-tree’s High Performance bioretention soil, which has been improved to allow a greater percolation rate, whilst maximising the ability to sequester pollutants from the surface runoff.Blend 3 is an experimental custom soil containing brick fragments, that in theory should aid permeability, whilst improving filtration. It will be interesting to see how this performs against the more traditional mixes.The performance of each bed will be monitored by Liverpool City Council, in collaboration with the University of Liverpool and The Merseyside Forest organisation.The various testing parameters include: Water flow during storm events and the velocity of discharge.Using moisture probes to monitor both moisture and temperature levels between the beds.How the different soils affect: vegetation, pollinators, water quality (and pH levels) and air quality.After eighteen months, all measured areas had shown improvement. Water discharge had decreased and quality increased. Ambient air temperature decreased and quality improved, and there was a noticeable increase in pollinators.

Green-tech supplies over 100m3 of Green-tree Intensive Roof Garden substrate and subsoil for roof and podium gardens in prestigious £31M Leeds apartment building.

One of the main goals for the designers of 80 Charlotte Street, MAKE Architects, was to engender a strong sense ofwellbeing for the office workers, residents and public that use it. As part of this commitment, the designallowed the inclusion of numerous roof terraces, both private and shared for the offi ces and residents, offeringdramatic views over Fitzrovia including the BT Tower.Green-tech involvementGreen-tech were contacted by Barton Willmore landscape architects, with whom we have a long workingrelationship going back nearly ten years, to quote for irrigation for the many planters required on two of theexternal terraces; part of a design developed by Piercy & Company Architects for a specifi c high-end tenantfi t-out.The most effective solution was to use Green-tech’s Mona tank system. This subterranean reservoir systemirrigates the soil through capillary action, reducing watering frequency whilst at the same time, aerating thesoil.

New road layouts and tree planting were undertaken in Athlone town centre, in both pedestrian and roadside locations. The main contractor was John Cradock, and the team is used to working with geo-cellular tree pit systems and saw no problem with the straightforward, simple design of TreeParker®. As is common in a town centre, there was the expected multitude of service lines and pipes running through the rooting area at various levels and angles. However, due to the way that the TreeParker® units are assembled, this caused no problem whatsoever, the support legs simply straddled the service pipes, as can be seen in the photographs.The new TreeParker® system comprises rigid, modular units made from reinforced, recycled polypropylene. The units enable the ground above a tree pit to be trafficked, supporting the paving above (up to 56t/m2), whilst still protecting the soil below from compaction. This means that rather than needing to use a fast-draining and low organic structural tree soil, a soft, friable, organic topsoil can be used, which is ideal for successful tree establishment. Although highly rigid, the units still provide 95% of their volume for rooting space. The heavy-duty, reinforced legs are available in various heights from the factory; 400, 600, 800mm, and 1, 1.2, and 1.5m. This gives a previously unheard-of adaptability with depth options, and more importantly, without the need to stack multiple units, saving installation time and money, as well as plastic. It also enables the units, by having legs rather than side walls, to easily straddle, or work around service pipes and lines, as was demonstrated at Athlone.