Fondly known as ‘The Green Roof Lady’, Joy was initiated to the industry 20 years ago, inventing green roof systems and educating the global marketplace alongside Wolfgang Behrens, literally from scratch. Joy has personally been involved in some of North America’s most celebrated projects; River Rouge, Ford Truck Plant and Vancouver Olympic Village’s dynamic figurines, are two that she is most proud of. Joy’s contributions have extended to accredited programming for architects, government task forces and research and development with Michigan State University, St Mary’s University, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, SAIT Polytechnic and British Columbia Institute of Technology. Change aside, Joy still packs her fleece and hard hat to climb up those construction sites, no matter the weather!
Joy is owner and President of Vitaroofs. The company is a rebranding of the green roof business that she owned and operated for 11 years, under the XeroFlor Canada Ltd. label. Prior to working and living in Canada, Joy played a key role as part of the green roof movement in Germany as Project Manager at Wolfgang Behrens System Development.
Today, she brings to the table an in depth understanding of green roof technology, building construction, green roof installation, plant survivability, energy and environmental design, technical writing and project management. Clients benefit from her knowledge, sound judgement and thoughtful perspectives on sustainability, biodiversity and climate change adaptation. And it is all balanced with a keen sense of profitability within the context of sustainability. Joy remains steadfast in her commitment to do the right thing, especially when it makes good business sense.
As an industry leader, Joy plays an active role on task forces focused on enhancing the biodiversity of cities through green roofs. Joy was involved in Toronto’s pilot and eco-roof incentive program that eventually led to the green roof bylaw in 2009. Today, Joy belongs to a new consortium focused on developing wind lift guidelines, a topic of growing interest in the green roof sector. The wind uplift initiative is a collaboration between National Research Council Canada (NRC), the cities of Toronto and Ottawa, Canadian Roofing Contractors’ Association (CRCA) and key players in the green roof industry.
Joy’s work has received much attention and accolades from the international media, including having been recently published as a leading expert in “The Rise of Living Architecture”, and most recently in Times Group – Green Building & Stainable Strategies
Research and Collaborative Work:
• National Research Council Canada (NRC)
• Michigan State University
• St. Mary’s University
• University of British Columbia, Okanagan
• SAIT Polytechnic
• The City of Toronto Green Roof By-Law
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