BROOKLYN GRANGE CEO BEN FLANNER TO SPEAK AT CITIES ALIVE 2022
LENAPEHOKING; NEW YORK, NEW YORK - (OCT 6, 2022): Brooklyn Grange co-founder and CEO Ben Flanner will speak on Monday October 17 at CitiesAlive 2022 — a multidisciplinary Green Roof and Green Wall conference hosted by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Philadelphia.
Ben will speak about The Farm at the Javits Center — a one acre green roof vegetable farm with a 3,500 sq ft climate controlled greenhouse an 10,000 sq ft orchard and food forest designed and operated by Brooklyn Grange, a leading green roofing and rooftop farming company in North America. With its integrated water management system and curated crop plan built in collaboration with Cultivated, the Javits Center’s in-house catering team, The Farm at the Javits Center is unique, immersive, and bold example of green infrastructure located in midtown Manhattan.
Ben will be speaking alongside alongside Jacqueline Tran, Directer of Energy & Sustainability at the Javits Center and Dustin R. Partridge, Director of Conservation and Science at NYC Audubon. Together, they will discuss how the Javits Center implemented the state-of-the-art green infrastructure in an unconventional way.
This year, CitiesAlive (October 16-19) will focus on on water management in the changing climate. The conference will include lectures, tours, and panels on innovative green roof designs, groundbreaking policies, new research, and products and services in the green infrastructure industry.
To learn more about Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and Ben Flanner, tune into the latest Green Roofs for Healthy Cities podcast episode, Bringing Agriculture Home to the Roofs featuring Ben Flanner.
ABOUT BEN FLANNER
Ben Flanner is co-founder and CEO of Brooklyn Grange. He is widely considered a pioneer for his groundbreaking model, which adapts existing green roof technology to intensively cultivate vegetables, beginning with Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, a pilot project on a 6,000 square foot Brooklyn roof, which Ben co-founded in 2009. A year later, in 2010, Ben and his partners scaled up the model and, in 2010, launched Brooklyn Grange, a commercial-scale urban farming business. Ben directs all agricultural endeavors on the farm, he brings his system optimization background to bear, making sure the business remains as fiscally sound as it is ecologically healthy. He has presented his work to audiences including NYU Stern Business School; Central European University; Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA); Slow Money; Barcelona’s Smart City World Expo; MAHA Agriculture Conference in Malaysia; The American Farm School in Thesaloniki, Greece; numerous Northeastern Horticultural Societies, and has been a guest expert on dozens of panels and university classes.
ABOUT BROOKLYN GRANGE
Founded in 2010, Brooklyn Grange is the leading rooftop farming and intensive green roofing business in the US. Brooklyn Grange operates the world’s largest rooftop soil farms, located on three roofs in New York City; designs, builds, and maintains urban green spaces, and hosts events and educational programming aiming to connect community with food, farming, and green space.
ABOUT GREEN ROOFS FOR HEALTHY CITIES
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities is a non-profit 501(c)(6) professional industry association working to grow the green roof and wall industry throughout North America since 1999. Our mission is to develop and protect the market by increasing the awareness of the economic, social, and environmental benefits of green roofs, green walls, and other forms of living architecture through education, advocacy, professional development, and celebrations of excellence. We offer The Living Architecture Monitor, online magazine for free. We also provide The Living Architecture Academy, another online resource dedicated to bringing you the best, most up to date professional training information on design, installation and maintenance practices.