In today’s Inquirer, Sandy Bauers reports on yesterday’s official debut of Philadelphia’s first Green Roof Bus Shelter, located at 15th and Market Sts., right in front of City Hall.

Green Bus Shelter Rendering

From the Green City, Clean Waters press release:

“The goal of this project is to inspire individuals to take on their own green stormwater management project at home and in their community.”

From the article:

“Every acre [of green roof in Philadelphia] manages or eliminates roughly a million gallons of storm-water runoff a year in the city,” said Chris Crockett, acting deputy commissioner of environmental services for the Water Department.”

In Philadelphia, Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler claims that green roofs currently cover more than ten acres. That’s like ten million gallons of runoff! But we can do better. According to the website for Roofmeadow, the company that donated the installation of the bus shelter roof and will maintain it for free for two years, 40% of new roof construction in Germany is vegetated compared to 0.25% of new roof construction in the US. We here at Naked Philly hope to live a long time on this wonderful planet of ours, and think that the Green Roof Movement is totally groovy. Hopefully, with thousands of people seeing this itty bitty green roof every day, Philadelphians will be inspired to think greener at home; we’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re gonna catch up to the Germans.

And how bout this? If you can believe it, there’s a tax credit available.

Get plantin’, Philadelphia.