We had an excellent year, thanks to our partners, volunteers, and participants! Much gratitude to our funding partners – Zero Emissions Innovation Fund (ZEIC), Wild Island Foundation, and Small Change Fund – for supporting our mandate and activities.
Between April and November, 2025, GRIN offered six tours that involved green roofs as well as ground-level green infrastructure. Participation ranged from 15 to 50. Most popular was our July 22 walking tour, “Getting Personal with Pollinators”, which was a collaboration with the Native Bee Society of BC and the City of Vancouver’s Green Infrastructure Implementation Team. For a flavour of our tours, check out our Gallery for images, and our Instagram for short videos. Please follow and like us on Insta and LinkedIn (if you don’t already)!
Our outreach also included three conference presentations, which expanded our reach and established better recognition at local (Grey to Green Vancouver), regional (BCSLA Annual Conference) and international scales (World Green Roof Congress, Basel, Switzerland). It was great to compare notes with colleagues from different parts of the world, where regenerative and progressive approaches are being suppressed by austere and conservative agendas. We collaborated with colleagues GRiT Portland under the title, “Green Roofs In The Wild West: Challenges And Opportunities.” The coolest part: our Basel presentation was expertly summarized by an Australian audience member, Jarod Lawlor, into a LinkedIn post. What an excellent student! The dialogue that accompanied the post was fun, too.
The theme of this year’s World Green Roof Day (June 6) was “Education”, which GRIN leveraged by launching our Education page, while negotiating contracts and MOUs with educational partners, and preparing content for courses and professional trainings. We are pleased to continue collaborating with Van Dusen gardens on “Green Roofs 101” in February (more below).
Though our tour schedule isn’t confirmed yet, we’re committed to some great events that engage our mandate and advance our strategic direction. Please come and find us if you attend, too!
GRIN is pleased to contribute a position piece/ problem statement to the first BPiBS Compendium, a resource that will share lessons from lived experience, research, and practice to help improve housing systems in B.C. and across Canada. By contributing, we’re helping to shape a shared resource that reflects the diversity of voices, experiences, and innovations shaping housing in B.C. and across Canada. The compendium will help:
Advance more equitable, sustainable, and affordable housing systems
Connect knowledge across disciplines and sectors
Turn lessons learned into actionable ideas that others can use
We’re delighted to have been invited to deliver a 1-hr educational session exploring best practices in urban landscape maintenance for the creation, maintenance, and stewardship of beneficial habitat for wildlife, with emphasis on pollinators. GRIN envisions a future where BC’s land- and roofscape are covered by regenerative ecosystems that promote reconciliation, food security, and that allow all living beings to thrive.
Designed for both homeowners and professionals, gardeners and ecologists alike, this full-day course outlines the current state of knowledge and practice, local case studies, as well as tips on plants, soils, and everything beneath! This introductory course provides basic technical know-how and practical skills to design, install and maintain green roofs. It will focus on lightweight, low maintenance systems that are best suited for small DIY projects. We will explore local case studies and share top tips in selecting plants, soils and accessories to create a successful green roof. Registration opens soon.
We look forward to participating in this interactive event that brings together researchers/ scientists, planners/ policymakers, community leaders, industry professionals, First Nations partners, and innovators of all varieties to advance climate and disaster resilience in British Columbia.
By effectively mimicking natural systems to buffer against extreme heat, heavy rains, and pollution exacerbated by climate change, green roofs and green infrastructure build climate resilience by cooling cities (reducing heat islands), managing stormwater (less flooding), improving air quality, saving energy, boosting biodiversity, and creating habitats. They provide insulation, absorb rainfall, filter pollutants, and offer nature-based cooling through evapotranspiration, making urban areas more livable and less vulnerable. In order to do this, however, they must be implemented at scale, which requires political will and supportive policies.
Thanks to a generous grant from Wild Island Foundation and the scholarly expertise of Dr. Theingi Shwe, GRIN will facilitate the exploratory phase of a large policy review that identifies the role of green roofs and green infrastructure in BC within the context of climate change. The project will equip GRIN with clear, evidence-based insights on how policies in British Columbia address (or overlook) these nature-based solutions. This work will support our capacity to advocate for stronger integration of these systems to climate adaptation and resilience planning.
If you appreciate what we do, please consider making a gift to support us! Through our partnership with Small Change Fund, we can offer charitable tax receipts for any donation over $10. We just updated our campaign page with exciting information about our two biggest projects: mapping and education. Your donation goes a long way to improve the prospects of more green roofs in BC, and enables GRIN to broaden its reach on educating more people, from professionals to young people. For more ways to donate, visit our Projects page.
