Green roofs are essentially a garden on a roof. These can serve many benefits to the building and surrounding environment. They are tremendous insulators to the building, greatly reduce water runoff from the building site, lengthen the roof life up to 3 times, reduce heat island effects, provide habitat for local birds and plants, and are much more aesthetically pleasing than conventional flat roofs. They can show off a customers desire to offset their ecological footprint by simply elevating the displaced Earth as opposed to replacing it with concrete structures. The most crucial issues that arise with green roofs are waterproofing, resisting root penetration and handling the higher weight loads. Standard practices within the industry have been developed to fully address these issues.