Challenges
Use your roof
Develop a scalable concept that makes it attractive for owners of buildings to make their roofs greener and more sustainable and to use them more intensively.
Space for the City
The Hague is a densely populated city. The Space for the City Agenda (2016) establishes big ambitions with regard to the combination of densification, sustainability and greening. It is not always easy to reconcile greening with densification. Municipal parks and gardens are important for the quality of life, a condition for the ability to densify, but they take up a lot of space. The city has an extensive roof landscape which is hardly used. Roofs are used in limited ways for energy generation (solar panels), but greening and more intensive use has made little progress, although green roofs offer enormous benefits for both building owners and the city as a whole:
- Better water retention, the capture of particulate matter and prevention of heat stress and general improvement of the living environment for citizens and employees.
- For owners, the benefits are also interesting: buildings are much better insulated and furthermore, green roofs appear to improve the efficiency of solar panels which could be a case for looking at combined business cases.
- Finally, making green rooftops accessible is potentially interesting for ‘urban farming’ and catering/leisure models. Examples of these are the Groen Dak Sportcampus in Zuiderpark (15,000 m2), Urban Farming The Hague (greenhouse on the roof), basketball court on the roof of Moerwijk fire station and making municipal roofs available for solar panels for residents’ groups. Furthermore, the lessons we can learn from these examples are also important.
Use that roof
The challenge: Develop a scalable concept that makes it attractive for owners of buildings to make their roofs greener and more sustainable and to use them more intensively.
Objective: more efficient and intensive use of the roofs in The Hague so that we are better able to combine densification with sustainability and greening. It is difficult for both large and small building owners to oversee all the benefits. Although many are sympathetic to the principles, there are all kinds of obstacles which prevent them from not taking action.
Startup in Residence The Hague – Use your roof
Additional demands / criteria:
- Keep in mind that the business case is realistic and independent of large subsidies
- Does it comply with legislation and regulation
Contact person within the municipality
Eugène Sauren
Niels Al
Apply now
Do you have a solution? Apply now for Startup in Residence The Hague