News Cleantech Canada
Vineland-Grodan’s recycled stonewool green roof project

Dec. 7, 2023 – Vineland is a member of the Greenhouse Technology Network (GTN), collaborating with small- and medium-sized organizations to advance the development, adoption and implementation of technologies to support the greenhouse industry. Funding is provided by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario to increase innovation capacity and grow the Ontario greenhouse industry.

A challenge for the greenhouse industry and its sustainability footprint is how to divert its production waste from landfills; this includes issues with implementation, logistics, costs and product quality.

Grodan, a manufacturer of stone wool, also known as mineral wool used in commercial greenhouse production, recognized the need to expand current reuse opportunities for its products, and to make these recycling opportunities more readily available in North America.

In their joint project, Vineland and Grodan developed substrate blends using recycled stonewool material and validated its application in green roofs and vertical forests, as well as a growing medium for woody perennials in horticultural production.

After analyzing different blends and parameters, the team not only determined the used stonewool to be suitable for greenery applications, like green roofs but also found that the final blends with stonewool significantly increased water-holding capacity and substrate performance compared to alternative media such as roof chip tiles and leaf and yard compost.

Read the full article here.