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When you hear the word pollination, does your mind automatically change it to the word “bee”? Time to retrain your brain on all things pollinator.

Look outside your window on a spring day, and you’ll see at least one flying thing.

If you live in a bustling Chicago neighborhood, like we do, you’re likely to see more than that: birds, bees, butterflies, dragonflies and even regular flies.

If someone asked you to point to the pollinators, though, we’re betting your finger would automatically gravitate toward the bees – especially those black and yellow striped honeybees we all know and love.

These days, though, we more than love the honeybee: We freak out about it constantly. Oft-cited reports of Colony Collapse Disorder – the unexplained die-off of honeybee hives – have people super-edgy about the fate of pollinators, and those who depend upon their pollination. (Spoiler alert: us.)

While the humble honeybee has a time-honored place in our imaginations and on our cereal boxes, though, it’s far from the only agent of pollination around. In fact, it’s only one of many, many animals on which we depend for the propagation of plants and the health of our urban ecology.

This leads to a few questions: Why does pollination matter, who represents the non-bee pollination faction and are we doing enough to protect them?

Understanding green infrastructure is the first step in leveraging its awesome power toward a better future

Sometimes remakes just aren’t as good.

Seriously, ask anyone who’s ever loved a movie from the 80s if the new version is better. (Spoiler alert: They’ll say no.)

The same goes for nature’s ability to handle the vast gallons of stormwater that pour down from the sky during every shower and blizzard – versus our ability to manage that water on our own.

That’s where green infrastructure comes in. 

We are just beginning to quantify the numerous green infrastructure impacts on wildlife, the climate, waterways and more. What we haven’t yet spent enough time on: how sustainable practices help the economy.

While green infrastructure has become a common enough buzz phrase these days, it’s not always clear what value you’re supposed to draw from sustainable systems.

How does green infrastructure impact citizens and homeowners? How does it impact the economy as a whole? Can it help your kid get a date to prom, please?

Okay, only two of those are actually relevant to today’s discussion (not telling which).

The point is, green infrastructure impacts the economy in many ways, but it’s not always easy to measure them. Which is a major problem, because it gives the critics room to claim that “green” is just another farcical notion meant to drain taxpayer money and divert attention from real problems.

Well, we object to that. We’re here today to discuss some of the very real, very measurable impacts of green infrastructure.

In recent decades, we have built a new framework of understanding regarding the ecological sphere represented by our cities. Now urban ecology programs are helping us to make that sphere healthier and more sustainable.

The new millennium has seen a major shift in thinking about our cities.

Formerly, our view of the urban environment was of a place apart from the wilderness – little islands scattered in a sea of Mother Nature. Today, though, we understand the impossibility of separating cities from the natural world. We’re all one, really.

If only Biggie and Tupac could have shared that attitude, I mean, you know?

Hip-hop gang wars aside, this represents a new and more useful way of envisioning the metropolitan environments in which we live. This new vision gives us the ability and the duty to institute urban ecology programs that will keep it as healthy as possible.

Green roofs are awesome, but their success hinges on the designer’s ability to account for the weight-bearing capacity of the roof and design accordingly.

In many ways, green roofs are nothing new.

Since the first prehistoric northerners put sod over their roofs, cooling their homes in the summer and keeping warmth inside during the biting winter months, humans have used the incredible power of greenery to moderate internal environments.

And feed their goats. And dress up their homes. And deal with rainfall. And be generally badass.

Seriously, though, green roofs provide a huge array of services: stormwater management, wildlife habitat, pollinator feeding zones, insulation, building protection and more.

Not, however, without one giant consideration to account for:

Weight.

While we don’t often stop to think about the magnitude of each rainfall and snowfall, the environment still has to deal with the massive quantities of runoff that result. So what is stormwater management, and why does it matter?

As the US Geological Survey points out, runoff from stormwater is an extremely important part of the world’s ecosystem. It carries water downhill to fill lakes and rivers, wears away at stone and dirt, forms climates and habitats in its wake.

That’s during natural processes, though. In cities, these mechanisms aren’t nearly so healthy. Rainwater pounds away at rooftops, sidewalks, streets and other impermeable surfaces, but can’t get through. It heads to sewers instead, picking up pollution and disease along the way.

Obviously, we need a way to manage all that runoff. If you’re asking “Well, what is stormwater management?” then you’re in the right place. Let’s talk about that.

The green roof construction process follows a standardized design, build, steward process to ensure the best product upfront and maximum success over the long haul.

If you’re interested in helping the environment, doing your part to manage stormwater and enhancing the urban ecology our cities, there’s no better place to start than with green roof construction.

Well, actually, there’s no better place to start than a steaming mug of coffee. But then the green roof thing.

Green roof construction isn’t as simple as throwing some succulents on top of an existing roof and hoping for the best, though. In fact, green roof construction is a highly specialized process that involves deep consideration of a number of factors, a well-executed implementation phase and monitoring period, and long-term stewardship.

So grab your cuppa joe and let’s get started.

Form and function should play nicely together in green roofs, but an industry trend toward “instant green” is muddying the philosophy and giving consumers the wrong impression. 

Many people are confused whether green roofs are supposed to prioritize beauty, transforming a barren landscape, or function, providing important environmental services.

For some reason, this leads people to believe they have to choose one or the other, and thus is a stereotype born: Do you want a scrubby, ugly, environmentally conscious green roof? Or do you want a blingin’ rain garden, which is pretty but focuses less on the whole sustainability thing?

This, to us, is silly. Do you have to choose between peanut butter and jelly? Macaroni and cheese? Tea and biscuits?

No. No, you do not. (And obviously you like tea and biscuits. We asked your coworkers.)

The thing is, form and function play very nicely together on green roofs … but you have to take a different approach to green roof aesthetics. It’s important to understand what green really is, as well as what you can do to ensure your roof prioritizes urban ecology, stormwater and other values in addition to beauty.

While the word “monoculture” conjures up images of endless wheat fields and rows of soybeans, the problem is severe inside our cities as well.

If you spend about three seconds in Michael Pollan’s head, you’ll get a raft of invective against monoculture.

Seriously, we do not want to be within five miles of the cage match between him and GMO corn. It’s just not pretty.

Yet though important, this highly publicized debate has had an unintended negative consequence: It has left the lingering impression that rural agriculture is the only sphere in which we must worry about monoculture.

That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Monoculture affects our cities significantly as well – and more importantly, the plants and wildlife that used to thrive there.

Think stormwater retention and detention are interchangeable terms? Think again … here’s a brief crash course in the differences between the two. 

If ever two terms were created to confuse, it’s stormwater detention and stormwater retention. I mean, come on … someone was just playing a cruel joke on us.

It’s critical we push past any English language befuddlements, however, because these two terms are extremely important to creating a better, happier ecosystem – both here at home and across the world.

Stormwater, see, is an incredibly problematic fact of urban living. The extremely high percentage of paved-over surfaces in the city – think asphalt, cement and concrete – water doesn’t have anywhere to go once it descends from the sky.

Long story short: It pools in streets and sewers, it picks up pollutants and disease, it transmits them to wildlife and waterways. In short, stormwater sucks and we need to do something about it.

First, though, we need to know what we’re dealing with vis-à-vis solutions. So what exactly are stormwater detention and retention? Let’s clarify both terms, then take a quick look at how you can employ each.