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Canada: The Inside Details on the Award-Winning IGA Organic Rooftop Farm

IGA Duchemin was the first grocery store in Canada to sell fresh organic produce harvested directly from its roof. More than 30 kinds of vegetables and flowers are grown there, totalling a harvest of 7.2 tonnes each year, sold on site, in the grocery store below!

By Aramis Velazquez
Green Roofs
August 1, 2022

Excerpt:

Drummondville, QC, Canada – (August 1, 2022) – When you see the IGA’s rooftop farm, it’s hard to imagine that it came very close to never happening at all. If it hadn’t been for the visionary output of La Ligne Verte’s cofounders Antoine Trottier and Patrice Godin, this project would have been a four-inch sedum mat extensive green roof. Not that this would have been a bad thing in itself, but we all agree that it would have been very far from the iconic grocery store rooftop farm it has now become in Saint-Laurent, on the Island of Montréal.

This neighbourhood’s regulations stipulate new roofs must be either green or reflective (white), and this specific project was required to have 50% of the building roof area covered with a green roof system. To meet this obligation, a simple extensive sedum roof was designed, and the bidding process went out as such. The project was awarded to La Ligne Verte, who was able to convince the IGA’s owner of the added value of investing in a large-scale urban rooftop farm. The roof was also redesigned to highlight the IGA logo, which is represented in the shape of the green roof.

Read the complete article here.