Christine Thuring | Green Roof Professional (GRP)

Christine Thuring, GRP

Christine Thuring is a collaborative ecologist with over 20 years’ experience with green infrastructure and urban ecology. Her career began in ecological restoration and applied plant ecology. Christine strives to ensure ecological principles are translated into the built and natural environments. She is an accredited Green Roof Professional (GRP) and a Meadow Maker, with a PhD in Landscape from the University of Sheffield. She offers urban ecology and green roof consulting via Ecotone, and advocacy and policy development via GRIN (Green Roof Infrastructure Network of BC).

How did you find out about GRHC and the GRP program?

I first encountered GRHC in 2000, when I was living in Toronto.

I was a fresh graduate from Trent University, living downtown with my boyfriend and looking for work. I knew Steven Peck via Young Environmental Professionals (YEP), a monthly pub-based networking event with featured speakers. He invited me to the launch event of the green roof pilot project at Toronto City Hall. Since I was out of work, I went to Nathan Phillips Square and ended up going to the pub afterwards with Steven, Brad Bass and Kaaren Pearce. It was a taste of the many green roof conferences to come! I started working for Sierra Club of Canada soon after, but maintained contact with all three. Brad took me along to Penn State the following summer to meet Drs. Beattie and Berghage (who I then did my Masters with); in 2003 Kaaren and I drove to Chicago together for the 1st GRHC conference.

Why did you become a Green Roof Professional (GRP)? 

I was interested in comparing notes! I’d been teaching the Green Roof and Living Walls courses at BCIT Centre for Architectural Ecology for several years. As a Covid complication, BCIT is no longer offering these courses. The GRP was offered to me as an honorarium for a seminar I delivered on green roofs for biodiversity and native bees. 

What does your job entail? What does your day to day look like?

My work is varied and wonderful. My applied green roof and urban ecology work falls under Ecotone Consultancy, which I recently formalized. This work is also quite varied, ranging from field work and documentation to report writing, research and, of course, meetings! Lots of exciting things are happening in this province, and I’m pleased to be able to bring ecology into the developments here.

My work doing advocacy, policy and outreach work on green roofs falls under GRIN (Green Roof Infrastructure Network of BC), whose mission is to advance the widespread implementation and appropriate policies, planning, design and maintenance of green roofs and stormwater infrastructure in BC. GRIN strives to bring together leading thinkers from policy-making, non-profit, academic, industry, and community organizations. I co-founded this non-profit with a group of excellent humans last year. A typical day with GRIN might involve meetings/ communications with my team and/ or with councillors/ collaborators. Other GRIN activities include co-organizing and running green roof tours; seeking out and preparing grant applications; developing curated sessions for conferences and symposia; preparing communications for blogs, white papers, etc.

What is your favourite part of your job?

I love being able to dedicate myself to my vision: A world where all beings can flourish, supported by landscapes that are functional, equitable, healthy and beautiful. I also really enjoy working and collaborating with others.

What advice would you provide to someone interested in pursuing a similar career path to yourself?

Stay true to your vision, clarify what is most important to you, and become familiar with the sweet spot between being challenged and comfortable.

What trends about green infrastructure/sustainability make you excited for the future?

Joyous green roof tour at the VCC (2019) via Vancouver GRITT (the precursor to GRIN). Photo: Christine Thuring

I feel like green roofs are poised for a refreshed purpose in light of the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis. Although their contributions and benefits have not changed, some of these are now of increasing value, especially for regions experiencing hotter, drier, fire-prone summers. For BC, I’m excited about the new role for green roofs’  capacity for fire suppression, urban heat island mitigation, thermal insulation and solar energy harvest enhancement. 

What do you see as the role of green infrastructure in resilience and the COVID-19 recovery?

Mental health, community cohesion and food security are timeless values for quality of life, and COVID revealed the importance of green space for these. To celebrate the first World Green Roof Day in 2020, colleagues and I co-authored an op-ed titled, “Green roofs contribute to well-being of cities on many levels”. 

How does having a GRP on projects benefit the company? 

Having a GRP within Ecotone brings confidence to the projects we work on. This is beneficial in B.C. where traces of doubt still linger around the effectiveness and value of these systems. 

Tell us about a recent project or two: 

For the growing season of 2023, I was part of an inter-disciplinary team dedicated to enhancing the ecological value, resilience, aesthetics and performance of the 6-acre Vancouver Convention Centre (VCC) living roof. My main task was to determine the current species composition of the roof, both intentional and unintentional. To this end, I designed field methods, conducted floristic surveys, assessed the vegetation data, produced species lists and wrote two reports. I also guided maintenance for the invasive perennials that have been established.

Another great project was co-developing the “Green Roofs Best Practices Guide for Vancouver''.  As the urban ecologist and GRP within a fantastic inter-disciplinary team (guided by the able leadership of PFS Studio), I contributed original content for the appendices on plant lists and habitat enhancement of the guide. 

Image1: The century-old orchid roof at Moos Wollishofen is a major inspiration for habitat creation on green roofs (Green Roof Safari, 2008).

Image 2: Visiting with Cornelia Oberlander-Hahn at the BCIT Green Roof Research Facility (2006).

Image 3: At the Basler Tramdepot with Stephan Brenneisen via Green Roof Safari (May, 2012).

Image 4: Christine applies plant ecology methods to describe and quantify vegetation (here on the Stuttgart Rathaus Garage, 2011).

Photos: Christine Thuring

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Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is a non-profit 501(c)(6) professional industry association working to grow the green roof and wall industry throughout North America since 1999. Our mission is to develop and protect the market by increasing the awareness of the economic, social, and environmental benefits of green roofs, green walls, and other forms of living architecture through education, advocacy, professional development, and celebrations of excellence. 

We publish The Living Architecture Monitor quarterly online magazine where industry leaders share their insights and expertise. These articles increase awareness of the economic, social, and environmental benefits of green roofs, walls and other forms of living architecture.

We also offer free access to The Living Architecture Academy, an online professional development platform which is dedicated to bringing you the best, most up to date professional training information on design, installation and maintenance practices across a wide range of green infrastructure topics. The LAA offers short lectures and multi-day courses such as: Green Roof Professional Training, Introduction to Green Walls, Biodiverse Green Roof Maintenance, and more.  

We also publish the Green Pages: Industry Green Roof and Wall Directory which is designed to support you with your living architecture projects by providing a list of trusted manufacturers, suppliers of accessories, green walls, nurseries, and certified Green Roof Professionals (GRPs). From small-scale residential projects to large commercial installations, this directory has everything you need to find support to create a sustainable and beautiful living space.

From the Living Architecture Monitor