NLRB confirms landscape professionals' role as green roof experts

Yes, times are tough for construction workers, and roofers are looking for work, just like just about everybody else in the building trades. But Chicago roofers won’t be horning in on the green roof business, not significantly anyway.

On Sept. 30 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in favor of the landscape industry and essentially against a chapter of Chicago roofers union that had attempted to get a piece of the green roof business in the Second City.

A chapter of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers complained earlier in 2009 that it is qualified and should be allowed to install green roofs, especially those systems characterized by pre-planted trays of greenery. At the heart of its complaint was work being done by Moore Landscapes, Inc., Northbrook, IL, at Roosevelt Collection, a loft and retail development with a projected 80,000 sq. ft. of green roofs.

Moore Landscapes, in a hearing this past July, said it had completed 20 green roofs since 2002. In all, landscape contractors have completed more than 100 green roofs in the Chicagoland this past decade.

The NLRB ruled that roofers could only perform limited portions of a green roof installation, according to the article in the Chicago Tribune. — Ron Hall

At right, green roof garden installed at the Chicago City Hall in 2000. The garden consists of 20,000 plants of more than 100 species, including shrubs, vines and two trees.