Expect more green in Buckley, but not from a dispensary.

Jolene Moorehouse, owner of the Sticks and Stones gift shop off state Route 410 in Buckley, installed a green roof on her building over the last weekend.

Green roofs are made up of different kinds of plants or grass instead of a traditional roof which is made of asphalt shingles. They install tile on the first layer, then soil, and then the plant of choice, which for Moorehouse was sedum.

She said this roof is the first of its kind in Buckley, but she hopes it inspires other businesses to become interested in the roofs and possibly install their own.

Green roofs, Moorehouse said, have many environmental benefits that regular roofs do not.

“[Greenroofs] reduce stormwater and purifies rainwater, creates a habitat for butterflies and insects, and has a cooling effect,” Moorhouse said. “The ambient air around it leads to cost savings because then you don’t use the air conditioning as much, so it’s better for the environment.”

There’s also a cost-saving aspect to the roof; a green roof might be more expensive upfront (estimates run between $20 and $30 per square foot), but maintenance costs are low, and the roof can last around 60 years (as opposed to a typical roof’s 25 year life-span).

“It is considerably more expensive, but over time with the savings, you can recoup the cost in 8-15 years,” Moorehouse said. “But it is significantly more, and a lot of it is from the engineering and ensuring it can bear the weight load.”

Moorehouse said she always had the vision for a green roof, so although it was more expensive than a traditional roof, when she built the building in 2020, the idea for the green roof was incorporated into the building plans. So, when she was ready to install the roof, she said she did not have to adjust the building.

You might think you’d need a lot of water to keep a green roof healthy, but Moorehouse said sedum does not usually require a lot of water, so she only needs to keep an eye on her roof until the sedum is established. After that, Moorehouse said there would not be a need to water the roof.

Moorhouse, who learned about green roofs in a gardening class, also said they increase employee productivity and happiness, and overall, they make the world a prettier place.

“Maybe other people constructing buildings will consider a green roof. They can come to look at mine and see,” Moorehouse said. “It would be pretty to get green roofs in our area.”