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A Higher Purpose: Lufa Farms Advocates the Greening of America's Rooftops
Green Technology Featured Articles
September 25, 2013

A Higher Purpose: Lufa Farms Advocates the Greening of America's Rooftops

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor

According to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a not-for-profit organization based in Toronto, the commercial green roof industry grew by an amazing 115 percent in 2011 and by an additional 24 percent in 2012. What’s more, all indicators suggest that this expansion only will increase in 2013 and beyond.


And it is not a stretch to say that this movement was pioneered and promoted by Lufa Farms, a Montreal grower and distributor that built the first commercial rooftop greenhouse in early 2011.

Indeed, the industry has nowhere to go but up, according to Mohamed Hage, Lufa’s founder and president—and a true believer.  This week, his company unveiled its second greenhouse atop a newly constructed office building. Located in Laval, in southwestern Quebec, north of Montreal, the rooftop farm will provide fresh produce to more than 6,000 people year-round— about two times the yield of Lufa Farms’ first greenhouse in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough of Montreal. The new 43,000-square-foot greenhouse system is scalable and can be replicated on new rooftops in any city.


Above, lettuce growing in the original Lufa Farms greenhouse (courtesy of Lufa Farms).

“This greenhouse puts high-yield, rooftop agriculture within the reach of any new building development, in any city, on spaces public or private, anyplace in the world,” commented Hage, adding, “After almost five years of focus on the main issues of urban rooftop agriculture, we have solved how to cost-effectively grow food, distribute it, integrate it with local farming efforts, and do it all in an environmentally conscious, sustainable way. This doesn’t just change how food is grown, it changes how cities eat.”

According to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, the advantages are numerous—among them:

  • Aesthetic Improvement: Urban greening has long been promoted as an easy and effective strategy for beautifying the built environment and increasing investment opportunity.
  • Stormwater Management: In summer, depending on the plants and depth of growing medium, green roofs retain 70 percent to 90 percent of the precipitation that falls on them; in winter they retain from 25 percent to 40 percent.  What’s more, green roofs not only retain rainwater, but also moderate the temperature of the water and act as natural filters for any of the water that happens to run off.
  • Moderation of Urban Heat Island Effect: Through the daily dew and evaporation cycle, plants on vertical and horizontal surfaces are able to cool city surfaces that absorb heat during the hot days and release it at night (such as concrete) , thereby reducing the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect.
  • Improved Air Quality: The plants on green roofs can capture airborne pollutants and atmospheric deposition. They also can filter noxious gases.
  • New Amenity Spaces: Green roofs positively affect the urban environment by increasing amenity and green space and reducing community resistance to infill projects. For example, green roofs can serve as community gardens (local food production or co-ops), or commercial spaces (display areas and restaurant terraces).
  • Energy Efficiency: The greater insulation offered by green roofs can reduce the amount of energy needed to moderate the temperature of a building, as roofs are the sight of the greatest heat loss in the winter and the hottest temperatures in the summer. For example, research published by the National Research Council of Canada found that an extensive green roof reduced the daily energy demand for air conditioning in the summer by over 75 percent.

Construction of the Lufa Farms’ new greenhouse—visible from the 440 highway atop a new mixed-use commercial building—was the result of a the company’s collaboration with Le Groupe Montoni Division Construction, Inc. of Laval, and the Dutch company KUBO, a world-renowned greenhouse designer and manufacturer. The structure uses an innovative venting system to control pests and temperature, as well as to optimize vital sunlight. The greenhouse also has a recirculating irrigation system for water and surface condensation.

"Our building is a shining example of an entirely new model of commercial construction: clean, energy-efficient, and contributing to the well being of the community," said Dario Montoni, president and chief executive of Le Groupe Montoni. “We build millions of square feet of buildings every year. If we put a greenhouse on each and every one, cities would produce enough vegetables to feed themselves year-round within ten years.”

Lufa Farms is using its own technology to remotely monitor the crops in Laval. The company’s plant science team oversees cultivation through a network operations center located at its headquarters approximately four miles away.  Using cloud-based data management and reporting, the team remotely monitors and manages the cultivation at both its existing greenhouse and the new greenhouse site. A proprietary software application helps the team quickly and accurately find, monitor, prevent, and control diseases and other problems as they arise.

“Laval represents the culmination of the past few years in terms of our technological development,” explained Lauren Rathmell, founding member and greenhouse director at Lufa Farms. “We now have a cloud-based method to efficiently and sustainably feed cities using limited resources. And by partnering with Montoni and KUBO, we’ve been able to develop a complete tech-driven food system from seed to plate.”

With the successful completion of its Laval site, Lufa Farms has demonstrated the strong commercial viability of its model. “There’s a very large global opportunity that has opened up in comprehensive food production and distribution models for cities,” said Dave Furneaux, a Boston-based investor and chairman of the board for the company. “This team has proven that their breakthrough business model works in Montreal and that they have the technology and vision to continue to scale both locally and globally.”




Edited by Alisen Downey


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