Ford Plant Green Roof

Can a producer of gas-burning, pollutant-emitting vehicles and people concerned about the environment ever learn to like each other?

Probably not, but even ardent environmentalists are giving Ford Motor Co. high marks for its newest plant — even if they don’t much care for what it makes. With its grass-covered roof and pollution-eating plants and energy-recycling infrastructure, the Ford Rouge plant is built to the highest environmental standards of any industrial facility in the world. The design synthesizes an emphasis on a safe and healthy workplace with an approach that optimizes the impact of industrial activity on the external environment.

The keystone of the Ford Rouge stormwater management system is the plant’s 10-acre (454,000 sf) “living” roof — the largest in the world. This green roof is expected to retain half the annual rainfall that falls on its surface. The roof will also provide animal habitat, decrease the building’s energy costs, and protect the roof membrane from thermal shock and UV degradation, thereby extending its life.

With the sound of nesting songbirds chirping over factory workers’ heads, the new Dearborn Truck Plant offers a glimpse of the transformative possibilities suggested by this new model for sustaining industry.