The GROOF (Greenhouses to reduce CO2 on Roofs) project is an innovative cross-sectoral approach to reduce CO2 emissions in the construction and agriculture sectors by combining energy sharing and local food production.
The idea is to use rooftop greenhouses as a tool to:
Practically, the project facilitates the emergence of this type of greenhouse on the market by demonstrating and disseminating good practices to actors in the building and agricultural sectors that are favourable to the development of profitable and functional economic and social models.
The project specifically aims to:
The results of each activity will be openly shared on our international community on the online platform Construction21 where regional and national public authorities, SMEs and large enterprises, research centres and general public are invited to interact.
This community also host a mapping of existing and planned rooftop greenhouse projects in the world. Each project leader is invited to fill in the information of his or her project in order to share it with the world and benefit from the community’s feedback.
Follow our activities
Join our community on Construction217 Place du 20 août
Liège
4000
Belgium
24 Robert-Bosch-Straße
Bensheim
64625
Germany
44 rue d’Alésia
Paris
75682
France
88 avenue Jean Jaurès
Champs-sur-Marne
77447
France
9926 Campus Allee
Birkenfeld
55761
Germany
69 rue de la Station
Braine le Comte
7090
Belgium
1C Rue Eugène Thibaut
Namur
5000
Belgium
Ed. Rectorat Campus de la UAB s/n
Cerdanyola del Vallès
08193
Ferme de Vauluceau Route de Chèvreloup
Bailly
78870
France
5 Zone d’Activité Economique Krakelshaff
Bettembourg
3290
Luxembourg
5 Zone d’Activité Economique Krakelshaff
Bettembourg
3290
Luxembourg
Lead partner
| Organisation | Address | Website | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conseil de Développement Economique pour la Construction |
5 Zone d’Activité Economique Krakelshaff Bettembourg 3290 Luxembourg |
n.zita@cdec.lu | www.cdec.lu |
| Name | Contact Name | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Université de Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech | Haïssam Jijakli | mh.jijakli@ulg.ac.be | Belgium |
| EBF GmbH | David Volk | david.volk@ebf-gmbh.de | Germany |
| ASTREDHOR: Institut Technique de l’Horticulture | Guillaume Morel-Chevillet | guillaume.morel@astredhor.fr | France |
| Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment | Maeva Sabre | maeva.sabre@cstb.fr | France |
| Hochschule Trier Institut für angewandtes Stoffstrommanagement | Karsten Wilhelm | k.wilhelm@umwelt-campus.de | Germany |
| Groupe One | Marc Lemaire | marc.lemaire@groupeone.be | Belgium |
| Cluster Eco Construction | Hervé-JAcques Poskin | hj@ecoconstruction.be | Belgium |
| Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona | Xavier Gabarrell | xavier.gabarrell@uab.cat | |
| Les Jardins de Gally | Nicolas Brulard | nbrulard@gally.com | France |
| Institut de Formation Sectoriel du Bâtiment | Marcel Deravet | m.deravet@ifsb.lu | Luxembourg |
You can find on this page all information and documents related to the call.
In its aim to boost the sustainable greenhouses sector, GROOF is offering the candidates a unique opportunity to receive professional coaching from experts in construction, energy, agronomy, business and social aspects. We aim to foster the development and adoption of a diverse range of building integrated greenhouse projects serving different contexts and purposes including the socially-led, commercially-driven, environmental, research, hybrid, etc.
GROOF’s area of knowledge covers the key components of what could lead to a successful greenhouse integration project. This knowledge has been drawn from the deep experience of the GROOF partners in their areas of expertise, research and through the realisation of 4 rooftop greenhouses and the coaching of a further 10 projects. With GROOF’s expertise and coaching, the candidates will be asking the right questions at the right time, guided by holistic expertise.
This call specifically targets projects from the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands and Germany. It is open to rooftop AND NON-ROOFTOP greenhouses, as long as they are working in synergies with a building.
WHY APPLYING?
During the coaching, you will receive personalised advice, thematic and collective training days, and technical visits on your project site.
APPLICATION FORM & INFORMATION GUIDE
Press kit in the PRESS tab.
ANY QUESTION?
| OPENCALL@GROOF.EU |
Knowledge and expertise in construction design, stability, materials, technical assessment, calculation, risk analysis. Specialisms in roofing and structure. Knowledge in material behaviour and innovative combination. Skills in technical project analysis.
Analysis of the energy flows of the existing building and the project itself, counselling for techniques and measurements to reduce energy demand and implement existing flows to reduce CO2 emissions.
The plant production expertise consists both in the design of plant production systems and the management of production. This includes knowledge in growing system, plant nutrition, light, pest and disease management, practical organisation of the work, etc...
Emphasis on the viability and durability of the candidates’ project, with the respect of the candidates’ vision. This includes evaluating the stakeholders, the cultural & geographical context, the social fabric, the environmental ambitions, the key threats, etc.
First coaching: already 10 projects coached since 2019
From September 2019 to September 2020, GROOF has already supported 10 greenhouse projects exclusively located on rooftops, for a total of 175 hours of individual coaching and 5 on-site visits to help them build, develop and implement their project. Then, 5 projects have been selected to pursue the coaching in phase 2 and accelerate their implementation.
All those 10 projects bring together different greenhouse techniques (hydroponic greenhouses, aquaponics, soil-based vegetable gardens, etc.) as well as different types of projects (educational, social, private, etc.) but all of them focus on ecology and the respect for environmental values.
DISCOVER THE EARLY ADOPTERS FROM THE 1st COACHING (2019 - 2021)
Location: Kirchberg (Luxemburg)
Adhoc habitat participatif is a non-profit in Luxemburg aiming at providing affordable housing for a long-term stable community. With their rooftop greenhouse, they will strengthen social cohesion among the residents by creating connection to the environnement.
Location: Brussels (Belgium)
The goal of the greenhouse « Green(s)pote» led by Les amis de l'Entrepote in Brussels (Belgium) is to enable the neighbours to garden all year long and produce vegetables such as tomatoes, peas, salads, herbs, etc. A part of the production will directly go to the kitchen of Belgobon, the restaurant just below the Garden.
Location: Tour (France)
"J'habite mon jardin" project was created by Tours Habitat, the social housing organization of Tours city. The greenhouse is designed as a tool for social inclusion. The production of vegetables and fruits is mainly intended for future inhabitants of the site. The production part will be supplemented by training, animation, communication towards a wide audience, from students ‘groups to urban farmers.
Location: Lille (France)
Yncrea engineering school wants to create the first future city’s European demonstrator of food & agriculture. The figurehead of this project will take place in an historical building of the city of Lille called « Palais Rameau » just next to Yncrea’s actual campus.
In this 3000 square meters space, Yncrea will create different areas related to local food production and transformation in the city. Yncrea will create different areas including: a Biohacking space for project based pedagogical approaches (including an urban farm), a food factory, a teaching center, an innovative showroom, a start-up incubator, a vertical farming experimental unit, an open space for the citizens.
Location: Namur (Belgium)
“Les Petits Poucets” will pursue two objectives, firstly it will produce and sell in the city center of Namur healthy, fresh and tasty products, and secondly it will provide training cycles for the project developers.
Location: Paris (France)
Cueillette Urbaine is a company that works for the development of urban farming and its benefits for cities. Their goal is to design, install and operate productive and ecological urban farms. They want to create a turnkey urban farm system that consumes little energy and is totally environmentally friendly while being productive. Through Culina Hortus, they plan to build up the first aquaponic and bioclimatic greenhouse farm in France on the rooftop of the 12th floor of a Parisian building (PARIS 12).
Location: Liège (Belgium)
Novacitis is willing to create synergies through the Four food-related units that they will be built up in the former carpentry of the City of Liège : a roof production area, a cafeteria, a local food store and a food processing unit. It will welcome small groups for awareness-building activities offered to local schools and during team-building events organized for enterprises.
Location: Nantes (France)
This project of 400 square meters space is located in Nantes, France, on the roof of an existing 24-apartments residential building. It will offer to inhabitants a new volume to be invested for various common activities: shared garden, urban agriculture experimentations, educational venue for the neighbourhood. The architectural project transforms the image of a social housing neighbourhood.
The SYMBIOSE core project team is composed of the building owner Nantes Métropole Habitat (NMH), Greenhouse-on-top (former Ecotropy), Claas architects and SCE. NMH is the leading coordinator. Greenhouse-on-top is in charge of the coordination of R&D activities.
For the project, they are bound by a consortium agreement with the companies LEGENDRE, CMF and the public research organization IFSTTAR.
Location: Brussels (Belgium)
Pousses & Vous! has the vocation to develop pedagogical projects in primary and secondary schools, in tight collaboration with the teachers, through field role-playing situations activities. They aim at contributing to the education and awareness of young people on the importance of supporting smart local activity to meet demographic challenges while respecting the environment and being involved in a social approach.
The core business of this rooftop including a greenhouse at See you in Brussels, Belgium, consists in school visits while the harvests represent the by-products socially valued through donations to caritative organizations.
Location: Arcueil (France)
The project consists of developing a multifunctional urban greenhouse and a common vegetable garden located on the rooftops of apartment buildings available to the residents.
The implementation of this project was driven by the real estate developer Axone Promotion who wants to provide the residents of its buildings with new common areas in connection with food production. Toits Vivants is an association which aims to develop integrated and participatory edible ecosystems.
You want to be kept informed of the GROOF open call? Subscribe now to our mailing list
Keep me informedThe GROOF project is investing in four pilots, designed to prove the effectiveness and durability of the models related to different building types, in Belgium, Germany, France and in Luxembourg.
Read more on each project below.
Paris, France
Urban roofs remain a little exploited space on which agriculture can develop and provide sustainable solutions to food, economic and climate issues in the city. A new stage in this urban agricultural development is therefore to create greenhouses on the roof that are totally integrated into the building's flow: in particular heat, water and CO2.
In this context, our greenhouse project on the roof of the Ferme Urbaine de St Denis consists of the construction and operation of a productive vegetable garden of 360 m² on the roof of the office and workshop building of the Ferme de St Denis, an urban farm run by les Fermes de Gally. This project will produce hydroponic and substrate agricultural products sold locally, in addition to farm production in the ground.
The greenhouse will have to work in synergy with the support building. Its location on the roof offers the advantage of enhancing the flat roof surface and thus preserve the floor space for the activities of the Kersanté Farm of St Denis (FKSD in the following). This feature will also allow it to easily connect to the heating and ventilation network of the building to recover heat and CO2, contained in the stale air, necessary for the cultivation of plants.
Follow the project of Construction21: Ferme de Gally - FRANCE
Gembloux, Belgium
The urban greenhouse of the TERRA building is part of the WASABI platform which brings together in one location all the innovative agricultural production systems adapted to the city and in dialogue with biodiversity. The platform and the urban greenhouse is an institutional project supported by Gembloux Agro Bio-Tech and ULiège.
The urban greenhouse will have an area of 198m² and will be divided into three compartments dedicated to research, teaching and demonstration of innovative systems adapted to urban agriculture. The main compartment (132 m²) will be dedicated to research only and will host experiments related to urban agriculture (hydroponics, aquaponics and bio-ponics). The second compartment will be dedicated to the demonstration and experimentation of innovative systems, both for students and for other publics. The third compartment will be used as technical hall. The greenhouse will reproduce conditions suitable for temperate crops such as lettuce and tomato. This greenhouse will be characterized by an accurate climate control, the production system will be modular in order to grow different crops.
Follow the project of Construction21: Université de Liège - BELGIUM
Bürstadt, Germany
The ebf pilot is a Sunlight greenhouse, which is a modern approach to the classical lean-to concept. It is a greenhouse which is focused on minimal energy demand and utilizing existing energy flows to achieve a year-round operation. In combination with an internally mounted photovoltaic shadowing system, the greenhouse is becoming the worlds first plus energy greenhouse.
The pilot will be installed on an old packaging hall of a former nursery which is now being reinstated by ebf to show how a futureproof and sustainable horticulture business can look like. It will unite modern plant production technics with a social aspect of creating a community starting from an early age. The rooftop greenhouse will be implemented in the whole operation harboring specialized plants like chili peppers which can be harvested all year. Furthermore, the schools and kindergardens of the surrounding area will participate in the operation. Here, they have the possibility to learn and share the knowledge for food production. This gives the opportunity to help people reconnect with food production and give them back the responsibilty for their own food security.
Follow the project of Construction21: EBF - GERMANY
Bettembourg, Luxembourg
The IFSB pilot project will be installed on the extension of its company restaurant. The size of the greenhouse will be 18 x 20 m. The rooftop greenhouse will be located near the training site and will house plants that can be used directly in the restaurant below.
Here, the idea is to integrate a food production greenhouse above a restaurant. A reconnection between local food production and people in order to raise awareness about their food. In addition, a corridor will allow visibility over the production area without disturbing it.
The connection to the building to recover CO2 and heat makes sense for the construction sector. Indeed, this sector in Luxembourg will thus be able to have a project integrated into the building allowing a recovery of CO2, a future challenge for this sector.
Follow the project of Construction21: SOTA- LUXEMBOURG
GROOF project is coordinated by the CDEC (Conseil pour le Développement Economique de la Construction), with the support of the INTERREG NWE programme, and carried out with eleven partners (public and private) from Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Germany and Spain.
Each partner brings valuable skills and knowledge to the project such as construction process and methodology, building energy management, urban agriculture development, knowledge of plants and cropping systems, entrepreneurial skills, socio-economic skills, etc.
| Company | Country | Field of expertise |
| Conseil de Développement Economique pour la Construction | Luxembourg | Building/construction |
|
Université de Liège – centre de recherches en agriculture urbaine et smart city Institute |
Belgium | Agro-socio-eco |
| EBF GmbH | Germany | Energy/Technic |
| ASTREDHOR: Institut Technique de l’Horticulture | France | Agro-socio-eco |
| Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment | France | Energy/Technic - Building/construction |
| Hochschule Trier Institut für angewandtes Stoffstrommanagement | Germany | Energy/Technic - Agro-socio-eco |
| Groupe One | Belgium | Agro-socio-eco |
| Cluster Eco Construction | Belgium | Building/construction |
| Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona | Spain | Energy/Technic - Agro-socio-eco |
| Les Jardins de Gally | France | Energy/Technic - Agro-socio-eco |
| Institut de Formation Sectoriel du Bâtiment | Luxembourg | Building/construction |
With the support of the Walloon Region
The project GROOF aims to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions expressed in CO2e by implementing greenhouses on rooftops for local production of vegetables. The reduction of GHG emissions is expected to result from the synergy effects of building and rooftop greenhouse (RTG), such as recovering heat losses from the building below to heat the RTG, and from reduced transport emissions. The questions are: How can we prove the emission saving from the four GROOF pilots? And compared to which greenhouse production do we save CO2e emissions? Read More
Urban farming can take many different forms. It ranges from community or allotment gardens to rooftop greenhouses and indoor cultivation inside buildings. Read More
Question asked to Emmanuel François, Smart Buildings Alliance for Smart Cities Read More
There are already installations in Bettembourg at the IFSB, in Bertrange at AG2R La Mondiale and in Oberpallen at the Pall Center. Read More
The seed was planted in 2015, when the Neobuild innovation cluster for sustainable construction built an experimental educational greenhouse on the roof of its living laboratory. Nearly 5 years later, the idea germinated to become a real urban revolution! Read More
On 5 June 2019, Claude Turmes, Minister for Energy and Town and Country Planning, visited Bettembourg at the Institut de Formation Sectoriel du Bâtiment in order to find out on the spot how the GROOF (Greenhouses to Reduce CO2 on Roofs) project carried out as part of the Interreg North-West Europe 2014-2020 programme is being put into practice. Read More
Faced with the problems of soil quality, land availability and agro-climatic control, greenhouse soil-less cultivation appears to be a relevant solution for urban agricultural production. Read More
Thursday 13 June 2019 - Ecole Centrale Nantes Amphitheatre As part of the European Interreg GROOF project, which develops and analyses the synergies between greenhouses for plant production and architecture, a morning of exchanges and discussions is organised with professional actors from Nantes in this new urban dynamic. Architects, urban farmers, local authorities, the agricultural world and builders will come to develop their views on the future of Nantes and its urban agriculture... and architecture! Come and discover and exchange with them, on June 13th at the Amphitheatre of the Ecole Centre, to understand and build together our cities of the future. Read More
The international LIVING CITY conference is back ! The theme of this new edition will be Urban Farming and the green buildings. Don't miss THE "urban farming" meeting in the presence of the Minister of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development Carole DIESCHBOURG who will present the national Urban Farming strategy and where the GROOF project will be in the spotlight ! Read More
9th International Circular Economy Week & Conference took place at Environmental Campus Birkenfeld on 22 – 26 October 2018. Prof. Dr. Peter Heck, the Managing Director of IfaS, introduced GROOF to the international audience during his welcome speech on Green Growth. He addressed the issue of CO2 emission reduction and the importance of cross-sectoral approach. Read More
What expertise do you bring to GROOF project?
"We offer knowledge in circular economy and material flow management, especially in regards to energy and resource efficiency and management. HS-Trier/IfaS has also an expertise in environmental assessment methodologies, such as greenhouse gas emission accounting, in order to contribute to the identification of potentials to improve buildings’ environmental performance. Thus, we contribute to GROOF with technical support including technical monitoring of CO2e performance in order to maximise emission savings."
Thomas Anton: Hochschule Trier Institut für angewandtes Stoffstrommanagement, Germany
"Innovation, sustainability, health, three key words representing the impact of GROOF project!"
Pierre Raulier, Project Manager, Centre de Recherche en Agriculture Urbaine, Université de Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Belgium
Quelles seraient les principales raisons pour un développeur de projet d'installer une serre sur toit ?
"Au Luxembourg, un maître d'ouvrage pourra se convaincre de faire une serre sur le toit de son bâtiment en prenant en compte les arguments suivants :
Marcel Deravet - Sustainable construction project manager, Institut de Formation Sectoriel du Bâtiment, Luxembourg
What were the motivations of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) to get involved in GROOF project?
"Transfer knowledge accumulated during the last ten years of work and research within ICTA-UAB in urban agriculture in southern Europe. Also, help promote Urban Agriculture in cities and, in this way, reduce CO2 emissions in buildings and make horticultural production more circular."
Xavier Gabarell Durany, Projet Leader, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.
Open call contact: opencall@groof.eu |
General contact: contact@groof.eu |
Follow our activities
Join our community on Construction21