GREEN ROOFS
The healing potential of green roofs in healthcare
Mike Vaczi, technical director at SOPREMA, examines how green roofs can support patient wellbeing in healthcare settings and outlines the key technical considerations for specifiers.
Green roofs have become a familiar feature on developments of all types, but their application in healthcare settings is particularly interesting. Beyond the well-documented technical benefits – such as surface water attenuation, improved thermal performance, and biodiversity gain – there is a substantial and growing body of clinical evidence linking access to green space with better patient outcomes and improved staff wellbeing. For a building type where the environment has a direct bearing on the health of the people inside it, that evidence changes the conversation around green roofs from a specification choice into something closer to a clinical decision. This article looks at what the research shows, how healthcare organisations are already putting green roofs to work, and what specifiers need to get right when approaching a project of this kind.
Green roofs and the case for nature in healthcare The mandatory requirement for new developments in England to deliver at least 10 per cent biodiversity net gain (BNG) since 2024 has pushed green roofs up the agenda on projects of all types and scales. For healthcare specifiers, however, BNG compliance is only one of many compelling arguments in their favour. Broadly speaking, there are two main categories of
green roof. Extensive green roofs typically feature sedum or other low-growing plants in a shallower substrate and are generally not designed for public access. They also include biodiverse green roofs, engineered to create habitats for insects, birds, and other wildlife. Intensive green roofs, often referred to as roof gardens, are a different proposition entirely. Designed to be used as accessible outdoor spaces, they can accommodate turf, shrubs, trees, and hard landscaping, and typically require a substrate depth of over 200mm. Between the two sits the semi-intensive green roof, which draws on elements of both to offer a degree of usable space alongside ecological value. For estates managers and healthcare specifiers, green
roofs have additional arguments in their favour beyond biodiversity compliance. They can support more efficient heating and cooling, help manage surface water, and – as a growing body of clinical research suggests – have a direct bearing on the health and recovery of the people inside the building.
What the evidence tells us The idea that access to nature is good for health is hardly a recent discovery. What has changed over the past four decades is the quality and volume of evidence behind it.
A 1984 study by Roger Ulrich – View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery – is widely regarded as the starting point for the modern understanding of nature’s role in clinical recovery. Ulrich compared outcomes for patients whose hospital windows overlooked trees with those facing a brick wall. Those with the natural view recovered faster, used less pain relief, had fewer complications after surgery, and generated more positive notes in their clinical records. The research that followed has added considerable
weight to those early findings. Studies in PubMed and BioScience have connected regular exposure to nature with reduced rates of anxiety, depression, and stress, lower blood pressure, better pain outcomes, and reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease. The benefits extend to staff as well as patients – access to green space has been linked to improved mental wellbeing and lower rates of burnout among healthcare workers. NHS Forest puts a direct financial value on this. Its research suggests the NHS could save around £2.1bn per year in treatment costs if everyone had access
October 2026 Health Estate Journal 167
Examples of solar green roofs.
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