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Loyola Marymount University

06/16/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 06/16/2025 15:41

Care and Attention Help a Green Roof Thrive

If you stroll along the east side of Seaver Hall, you'll pass the green roof on the Bruce Featherston Life Sciences Building at Loyola Marymount University, which is blooming into a vibrant showcase of native California plants, a living testament to the sustainability goals found in the Laudato Si' Action Platform. Under the leadership of Tatiana Kuzmenko, instructor of biology, the "green team" at Featherston LSB, consisting of engaged students from various fields of study, has worked efficiently and thoughtfully to reseed and maintain the green roof so that it is not only healthy, but thriving.

The natural, simple beauty of the green roof reflects the care, study, and hard work that has gone into understanding what is best for the roof and the ecosystem that it supports. For everyone involved, this project has been a true learning experience and teaching opportunity.

Kuzmenko took the lead, along with her team of students, in supplying the roof with pumice-rich volcanic soil ideal for the California meadow habitat they were hoping to create. "When you plant grasses and flowering plants very closely together," said Kuzmenko, "they support each other… [and] make a thick cover on the roof." Not only is it a healthier ecosystem, but it is also one which, by all accounts, is far more aesthetically pleasing than the original succulents. Kyle Wright, junior biology major and one of the student leaders on this project, expressed satisfaction with the outcome of their hard work. "You can't look barely a square foot without seeing some plant that's part of our effort."

And that effort is ongoing, reflected not only in the consistent seeding of new plants - Wright expresses hope that over the next couple of years, they will be able to "do a big LMU in flowers on the green roof" - but also in the maintenance of the plants already there. That includes regular weeding, and the removal of the last trace of succulents. Again, there is an aesthetic concern at play, but also the matter of ecosystem health: "Some weeds do flower," says Wright, "but a lot of the weeds we pull do not … and a flowering plant means a bee gets to pollinate."

When the green team replaced the succulents with native plants, they created a healthier roof, and one that is more in tune with the wider regional environment. In addition to the clear environmental benefits, the building's green roof also has financial and structural benefits. According to a study by researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, green roofs in Los Angeles can reduce annual cooling energy consumption by over 80%, which is particularly helpful during those hot Mediterranean-like summers.

The green roof is also an experiment in biodiversity. As Wright said, "It provides an ecosystem that can thrive under our care, from the pollinators of the plants to the bunnies who like the grass … and the hawk that likes the bunnies! It provides excellent opportunities for study and teaching."

Wright notes as an example how Demian Willette, assistant professor of biology, uses the green roof as a tool to teach students how they can measure biodiversity in the field. Wright hopes that this project will inspire others on campus to seek similar creative opportunities for expanding environmental programs. "For years, people overlooked the roof and did not consider its potential, and in a few short years, [it has] exploded into what we have today," said Wright. I think with a little effort, we can identify many other areas on campus that could use the same restoration."

When installed in 2015, the green roof initially struggled because it was seeded with succulents, which strained in California's mediterranean climate. According to Pippa Drennan, professor of biology, this "relates particularly to drought stress and to heat stress." Unlike many other parts of the world, where the rainy season tends to correspond with the hottest times of the year, Southern California generally experiences a rainier winter and spring, alongside a drier summer.

"In Los Angeles in summer, you can go from May to November and have potentially no rain … which means there's the potential for a lot of species to become heat-stressed here in Southern California," Drennan said. While succulents were historically assumed to be ideal candidates for green roofs because they do not require much water, they are in fact exceptionally vulnerable to Southern California's environmental stressors. It was a lesson learned that led faculty and students like Kuzmenko and Wright to experiment with different approaches to create a thriving green roof.

Loyola Marymount University has signed on to the Laudato Si' Action Platform, a global initiative inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical On Care of Our Common Home (Laudato Si') that will guide our institutional journey to ecological renewal by 2030. To learn more, visit lmu.edu/lsap.

Loyola Marymount University published this content on June 16, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on June 16, 2025 at 21:41 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at support@pubt.io