"When I receive inquires from visitors interested in having their own living roof, the first step I suggest they take is to visit the Bay Localize website and read the Use Your Roof Guidebook. It's a great resource!"

In the first two years of the Rooftop Resources Project, Bay Localize worked with task forces, consultants and volunteers to conduct a literature review, complete a Neighborhood Assessment and support various pilot projects and research.

In this work, we identified innovative design schemes, best practices and productivity levels of rooftop technologies and how to appropriately fit rooftop systems to a general set of building typologies. The results of this analysis show us that with a careful site assessment and implementation, as well as an appropriate design, rooftop technologies are viable for existing and new buildings and can be highly productive, contributing a significant volume of food, water and energy.

The next step forward is materializing the potential -- which is the purpose of our newly launched Use Your Roof Guidebook! While our Neighborhood Assessment explored a range of building types and living roof, rainwater catchment and solar power prototypes, Use Your Roof is a straight forward guidebook of resources and considerations to help you assess your building for the most appropriate technology for your building.

The Use Your Roof Guidebook is divided into four chapters that cover the key steps for researching a rooftop project. It includes a basic definition and description of roof gardens, rainwater catchment and solar power, factors for consideration and how to assess your building for a given rooftop system, best practices, and a comprehensive list of resources and tools to inform the implementation process.

We hope that the resources and information contained in the Guidebook help you begin evaluating and deploying rooftop systems that provide you and your community with additional supplies of food, water, and energy.

GET YOUR COPY TODAY!
Use Your Roof is now available at select bookstores in San
Francisco and Berkeley — help us keep the sales going! Purchase your
own copy for as little as $7.00! It's vital that we continue
demonstrating the rising interest and help the local economy and the
movement grow — so let people in your network know or buy a few copies
for friends and family! Our current and growing list of stores
includes:

East Bay

• Bookshop Benicia, 856 Southampton Road, Benicia, CA 94510
• Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, 1310 McGee Ave., Berkeley, CA 94703
• Berkeley Indoor Garden Hydro, 844 University Ave., Berkeley, CA 94710
• Builders Book Source, 1817 4th St., Berkeley, CA 94710
• Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Berkeley, CA 94702
• Mrs. Dalloway's, 2904 College Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705

San Francisco

• Dog Eared Books, 900 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA 94110
• Flora Grubb Gardens, 1634 Jerold Ave., San Francisco, CA 94124
• Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA 94110
• Needles and Pens, 3253 16th St. (bet. Guerrero and Dolores), San Francisco, CA 94103

Independent Online Reseller

• 100Fires Book Company

You may also download a FREE copy of the Use Your Roof Guidebook:

• Download a copy of the Guidebook here!