Just as diverse as their design possibilities are the multiple disciplines combining their knowledge to fill the demand for eco-technology — private companies, universities, and government organizations are building green roofs that enlist the skills of architects, designers, city planners, engineers, environmental managers, and botanists.
     The positive effects are aesthetic, environmental, psychological, and economic — incorporating sustainable design to develop civilization with the natural world, rather than confronting it. Green roofs provide storm drain management, absorbing rainwater and delaying runoff, which reduces storm drain overflow and freshwater sewage contamination in cities with combined sewage and storm-drain pipes. An extension of this effect is water quality improvement. The delayed rainwater runoff is cooled by evapo-transpiration after being filtered through the plants. Green roofs also provide heat mitigation, lowering ambient air temperatures using biomass to combat urban heat islands.
     As a natural reaction to increased oxygen from plant life and wildlife habitation, air quality improves, ventilation removes toxic particles from the air, and ecological systems are renewed. On the economic front, green roofs create new jobs from building and maintenance, as well as reduce energy consumption costs through thermal insulation, and create sustainable, vertical real estate by utilizing space that already exists to improve our quality of life.