Canadian urban agriculture company Lufa Farms is building a new rooftop greenhouse in Montréal, representing its fourth and largest site.
The new facility will have a greater surface area than all the business’s three other greenhouses combined and will grow aubergines and more than ten tomato varieties.
The greenhouse repurposes an existing industrial rooftop to further Lufa’s vision of growing food where people live and doing so sustainably.
“With each greenhouse, we hold ourselves to an ever-higher standard for sustainable design. Our new farm will be the most energy-efficient to date and integrate all our learnings from the last ten years to responsibly grow more vegetables for Lufavores year-round,” said Lauren Rathmell, Lufa Farms co-founder and greenhouse director.
The greenhouse will feature double-paned glass and two sets of energy-saving screens for improved insulation. Its integration with the building below provides additional thermal benefit to both structures.
The site will also capture rainwater to be used in the closed-loop irrigation system, as well as offset waste with an on-site composting system.
Lufa Farms co-founder and CEO Mohamed Hage said: “This rooftop greenhouse will double our growing capacity and allow us to feed 2% of Montréal with fresh, local vegetables. It’s an unbelievable step forward for hyper-local, sustainable urban farming.”
Construction of the facility began in September and is expected to be finished by March 2020.
Founded in 2009, Lufa Farms aims to create a more sustainable food system by growing crops on city rooftops and partnering with farmers and food makers to provide customers with fresh, local, responsible food via its online marketplace.
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