A photo of an impressive 127,000-feet rooftop greenhouse facility on top of a Walmart in Montreal is getting a lot of attention online.
Earlier this week, retired Canadian Astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield shared an image of the greenhouse on Threads, which received more than 3,500 likes and dozens of comments.
“A huge greenhouse on the wasted space of a @walmart roof – great northern idea, by Canadian company lufafarms!,” Hadfield said in his caption.
View on Threads
Despite being located on top of a Walmart store in the city’s Marché Central area, the retail chain confirmed to Now Toronto that the greenhouse is managed and operated by Lufa Farms.
Lufa Farms is a company that has been building rooftop greenhouses on industrial buildings in Montreal since 2009, aiming to find a sustainable and efficient way to grow food in urban cities.
“Like all our greenhouses, we aim to grow food where people live, and grow it more responsibly, using less land, less energy, less water, less waste, and less resources,” Lufa Farms wrote in an online description of the project.
“It started 15 years ago, and we’ve been supporting our local food system, having access to amazing products, because it’s not just greenhouse products, but we also have bread and meat, dairy and anything you’d find in the normal grocery store, but all local,” Emily Peloquin, a spokesperson for Lufa Farms, told Now Toronto on Friday.
According to her, Lufa Farms’ mission is rooted in growing “the food where people live,” supporting urban agriculture that brings in a series of advantages to the environment, like saving energy, and reducing food transportation expenses.
“Building a greenhouse on top of a building, we save a lot of energy because the building below is heated, and so we use about half as much energy as a greenhouse that’s at ground level,” she said.
The greenhouse seen on top of Walmart was constructed last year and Lufa Farms says it’s the most technologically advanced one it has created so far, with high-intensity LED lights that are three times more intense than the average, a diffused glass roof, double-paned perimeter glass, double curtains and a blackout curtain.
“This farm is…on track to generate up to 20 per cent more produce than conventional greenhouses of similar size,” Lufa Farms’ website says.
Some Threads users who recently learned about the facility were impressed by the initiative, saying this is a great use of “wasted space” in urban cities.
“Wow! Is this an experiment? I would love to see this on all big box stores!!🇨🇦🇨🇦,” a user said.
“One of several rooftop greenhouses throughout Montreal and Laval – not all on Wal-Marts. Lucky enough to live in Montreal and get my greens and other produce, as well as other grocery products from this company,” another user commented.
Some impressed reactions also came from Lufa Farms clients, who said they’ve been buying the company’s produce for years.
“Been a fan and user of @lufafarms for almost 10 years! Fantastic idea ahead of its time. Lovely produce, good partnerships, a pay-it-forward program….” a customer wrote.
“I love my @lufafarms orders! Hopefully rooftop greenhouses catch on in other cities,” another user chimed in.
Besides the Marché Central location, Lufa Farms also carries five other rooftop greenhouses across Montreal, delivering food to thousands of people around Quebec and Ottawa.
ROOFTOP GREENHOUSE TREND
According to the World Economic Forum, rooftop greenhouses in urban areas are becoming a more common trend in developing countries, as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recognized that they could be an important step in combating food insecurity.
They also generate a series of other benefits, such as saving energy from the structure underneath the roof, saving water by collecting and using rainwater, increasing food and air quality, and more.
Peloquin says she has observed a growing trend not only in rooftop greenhouses, but in urban agriculture efforts in general, especially adopted by startups that aim to reduce food insecurity in a more sustainable way.
“More people are doing it because it’s viable. And so, not just greenhouses, but loads of different urban agricultural and kind of initiatives and startups are doing a lot of really impressive work to grow food where people live, and to do it super efficiently and sustainably,” she added.
As the biggest city in Canada, Toronto is also home to a few rooftop crop-growing initiatives.
A 370 m2 rooftop farm supplies sustainable crops to Avling Brewery in the Leslieville area since 2020, growing produce like tomatoes, radishes and herbs.
The Toronto Metropolitan University campus also houses not one, but two rooftop farms that use ecological and spray-free practices that prioritize soil health, producing vegetables, herbs, beans and squash.
Other major North American cities have also been adopting rooftop greenhouses and farms like Vancouver, New York, and Boston.
