DIADEM^® helps Gateway Center walk the walk

DIADEM^® is helping one of Southern California’s largest electrical utilities make the connection between energy conservation and storm water management.

The 15’ by 60’ awning at the Southern California Edison’s Energy Education Center, located in Irwindale’s Gateway Center Business Park, is a demonstration opportunity as it greets visitors to SCE’s adult education courses in energy conservation, efficiency and the environment.

Commissioning agent for the project and owner of Earth Systems NW, Bruce Hostetter, said he chose to use DIADEM^® because of their unique solutions for sloped surface design. “Since we were mounting the garden on bare steel construction, we didn’t want anchor points that penetrated the waterproof membrane. DIADEM^®’s ballast systems allowed us to anchor the roof with a perimeter of ballast rock,” he said. This permeable edge also allows for proper drainage. DIADEM^® System’s jute net provides a natural solution to holding the growing medium until the sedum’s roots are firmly established.

The sedum plants were recommended by DIADEM^® because of their extreme heat and evapotranspiration tolerances without wilting and dying, yet hardy enough in winter time to withstand occasional frosts. Landscape architects, Site Design Studio, created a pattern of growth to give the awning a thoughtful, yet subdued pattern.

DIADEM^®’s green roof shares the space with photovolteic solar collectors that power irrigation pumps at a nearby, off-grid garden with harvested rainwater. All of these amenities are part of a sustainable site improvement to the whole office park in which 100 percent of storm water remains on-site or returned to the water table through bioswales.

Hostetter says it’s not well known that as much as 20 percent of electrical demand is used to serve the water needs of Californians; much of that transport and treat storm water discharge. “So you can see, how electrical utilities would love to demonstrate connections and conservation opportunities in something as seemingly unrelated as electricity and rainfall.”