By Mark Paul MAIH RH Images/ Mark Paul, The Greenwall Company
In 2005, we were extremely proud to launch the next advancement in green roof technology – the introduction of the Eco Pillow. Modular in design, the Eco Pillow is a pre-grown living roof that offers all the proven benefits of a green roof while radically reducing risk and cost of the roofing structure.
Moving forward to today, we have evolved the Eco Pillow, enabling the size and shape to be a bespoke design to fit any space or structure based on the brief. We started with 94% of the materials recycled primarily made up of broken down PET bottles, however over the past few years we have been able to incorporate more items previously destined for landfill include polystyrene and ground coffee waste.
This innovation makes way to take waste products destined for Australian landfill to reduce our carbon footprint and is just one of the many benefits of the ever evolving Eco Pillow.
The Eco Pillow structure and the growing medium were developed for their lightweight properties, making a 1m x 500mm x 120mm Eco Pillow just 60kg/m2, when fully wetted out.
Creating a lightweight and modular product were always at the forefront of the design priorities. By reducing the overall weight, we reduce the builders need for additional structural support and open the possibility of retrofitting – something we felt the market was demanding at the time, which is even more prevalent today.
The Eco Pillow can be easily relocated, which further enhancing its adaptability and is planted to last the lifetime of the structure it has been applied too. As a pre-grown, and fully encased product, the Eco Pillow is incredibly quick to install and reduces the risk of failure from extreme weather conditions, wind scour or rain erosion.
The semi mature plants provide cover from day one, reducing establishment time, and the likelihood of weed invasion – the two primary drivers of maintenance cost.
Eco Pillows. Image: Mark Paul, The Greenwall Company
Internationally, and here in Australia, the trend towards ‘greening’ buildings is now a top priority with architects, builders as well and local and state governments. Green roofs have been proven to not only radically reduce stormwater runoff and therefore the cost of disposal, but they also provide greater insulation for a building, prolong the life of the roof membrane and reduce noise penetration.
Installing a green roof also makes a valuable contribution to the external environment, amenity, and provides an inhabitable environment to promote biodiversity. They are beautiful and calming to look at and use, increasing the worth of the real estate they are on and viewed by.
The many benefits of greening spaces with our patented Eco Pillow designs include:
Thanks to the new advancements we have been able to make to the original Eco Pillow design, we have been able to create large scale planters, minus the pot or planter box as well as a unique new way to grow a cactus garden, also minus the pots as well as hide unsightly concrete columns to name a few.
Mark Paul MAIH RH is the founder of The Greenwall Company and the creator of the first greenwall in Australia over 30 years ago, a wall that is still thriving today.
