‘Recently, Nexus has helped to design and construct several high-profile urban greenhouse projects to grow vegetables and herbs. Most of these urban greenhouses are in communities who do not have access to locally grown produce or enough open space to grow with traditional methods. Building on the roof top was their best option.’
‘We grow food where people live and grow it more sustainably.
This means growing on no new land; capturing rainwater; recirculating 100% of irrigation water and nutrients; reducing energy use; composting green waste; using biological controls instead of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides; and delivering produce to customers on the same day it’s harvested.’
From the standpoint of the building structure itself, Rooftop Greenhouses (RTGs) hold a great promise in changing the architectural functionality of our cities. A study paper entitled ‘Roofs of the Future: Rooftop Greenhouses to Improve Buildings Metabolism’ from the Creative Construction Conference 2015 examined the integrated Rooftop Greenhouse (i-RTG) that includes energy, water and CO2 flows in the metabolism of the building. Multidisciplinary assessments by the Fertilecity Project using Life Cycle Assessment (LSA) and the Integrated Value Model for Sustainable Assessment (MIVES) quantified the potential of i-RTGs and their environmental, economic and social benefits.
‘Gotham Greens pesticide-free produce is grown using ecologically sustainable methods in technologically-sophisticated, 100% clean energy powered, climate-controlled urban rooftop greenhouses. Gotham Greens provides its diverse retail, restaurant, and institutional customers with reliable, year-round, local supply of produce grown under the highest standards of food safety and environmental sustainability. The company has built and operates over 170,000 square feet of technologically advanced, urban rooftop greenhouses across 4 facilities in New York City and Chicago.’
‘Green Sky Growers, a rooftop farm, is located on top of the Garden Building in Winter Garden, Florida, and is the first Certified Green building in the world with commercial-scale, Aqua-Dynamic farming on the rooftop. Green Sky Growers produces tons of fresh vegetables and fish on an annual basis without the use of harmful pesticides.’
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Designed to grow in any climate and with an exceptionally small footprint in urban environments. VertiCrop™ Vertical Farming uses a fraction of the resources needed for field agriculture, while generating substantially higher yields.Yields are approximately 20 times higher than the normal production volume of field crops. VertiCrop™ requires only 8% of the normal water consumption used to irrigate field crops. VertiCrop has high levels of food safety due to the enclosed growing process and significant operating and capital cost savings over field agriculture.’
‘The inspiration for BrightFarms grew out of our desire to grow food in the same communities where it’s consumed—a desire to grow food that’s fresher, tastier, and better for the environment. BrightFarms finances, designs, builds and operates greenhouse farms at or near supermarkets, cutting time, distance, and cost from the produce supply chain.’
