![]() Until the late 19th century, it was the most common roof on rural log houses in Norway and large parts of the rest of Scandinavia. Photo: RoedeĪ sod roof, or turf roof, is a traditional Scandinavian type of green roof covered with sod on top of several layers of birch bark on gently sloping wooden roof boards. Photo: Roede House in Hemsedal in immediate need of repair. “As well as promoting biodiversity and being populated by bees, they will help us get the bus shelters populated with more bus users too.Traditional Scandinavian type of grass roof Sod roofs on log buildings of Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo Old sod roof in disrepair, Hemsedal, Norway. “It’s so beautifully simple, but it takes a lot of time and effort and planning to get it right,” said Stubbings, who believes that as more are seen, councils – which are increasingly looking for ways to get flower-rich grassland back into cities to combat declines – will be more enthusiastic about taking them up.įor Cllr Adam Clarke, deputy city mayor of Leicester, the project is also encouraging greener ways to travel. It has created a “no roofs unused” policy, in which every roof will now be greened with plants and mosses or have solar panels.Ī team from the UK went out to Utrecht five or six years ago. Utrecht, which was Europe’s first city to get bee bus stops, now has more than 300. Photograph: Courtesy of City of Utrechtĭutch cities have managed to stabilise urban bee populations in recent years, a study found last year, following decades of declines, and bee hotels and bee stops were among their solutions. The city of Utrecht in the Netherlands has more than 300 green roofs on bus stops. As well as the wildlife benefits, the roofs also absorb rainwater, and make a small contribution to offsetting the urban heat island effect. Native flowers such as kidney vetch, thyme, selfheal and wild marjoram have been chosen to attract a range of pollinators including common carder bees, buff-tailed bumblebees, peacock butterflies, small tortoiseshell butterflies and chequered hoverflies. We’d like to do them everywhere, the positive effects are incredible,” said Stubbings.Ĭlear Channel is working with the Wildlife Trusts to maximise the benefit to wildlife. We see this as a long-term, scalable addition to our bus shelters. “We want to roll this out to as many countries as possible. They are already established in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, and the company is building them in France and Belgium later this year, with inquiries coming from as far afield as Canada and Australia. The company declined to say how much bee bus stops cost compared with normal shelters.Ĭlear Channel aims to create at least 1,000 bee bus stops in the UK, hopefully more. You have to be really considered and mindful with planning these things and making sure the good they’re providing really is good,” said Stubbings. “We don’t want to rip perfectly good shelters out of the ground to put a new one in. Ones with living roofs have to be specially designed because the soil is so heavy, especially when it is full of water, and Clear Channel is installing them only where shelters need replacing. The average bus shelter has a shelf life of at least 20 years. “We want to do it in as many cities in the UK as possible,” said Louise Stubbings, creative director at Clear Channel UK, which manages 30,000 commercial shelters on behalf of councils.
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