Green roofs provide habitat for urban wildlife including invertebrates, birds and bats in otherwise inhospitable building environments, contributing to urban biodiversity and individual animal welfare.
Green roofs provide genuine welfare benefits for urban wildlife by creating food, shelter and breeding habitat in environments that would otherwise offer none of these. For species such as black redstarts, which are largely confined to industrial brownfield sites, green roofs can provide the only available breeding habitat in some urban areas. The welfare value per square metre of biodiverse green roof is significantly higher than sedum monocultures, as diverse flowering plants support invertebrate food webs that sustain higher vertebrate species. Design choices in green roof specification therefore have direct welfare consequences.