Starting a new urban landscaping project can be confusing, but we’ve got answers to many of the questions you’ll have about our products and how they work.
Questions and answers
GreenBlue Urban’s RootSpace is the world’s original soil cell, manufactured from 100% recycled plastic, rated for H-20 vehicular loading with minimal surface, and boasts the largest soil volume in the industry – to list just a few of its many benefits.
RootSpace ArborSystem and its bioretention application known as ArborFlow have been approved by numerous state authorities across the country and internationally including the Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Ecology, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Environment, and more, in addition to many municipal-level approvals.
RootSpace has been installed in hundreds of locations with freeze/thaw conditions, including Northern USA, Canada, and Northern Europe. The nature of the void space within RootSpace soil cells provides ample room for expansion and contraction, and thus no issues in freeze/thaw conditions.
GreenBlue Urban’s systems are manufactured in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
RootSpace ArborSystem is designed to outlast the infrastructure it’s installed in, but in reality the system will significantly outlive the infrastructure around it because it’s manufactured from 100% HDPE which is only broken down by UV light which its unaffected by because of being buried underground. There are GreenBlue Urban ArborSystem installations that date back to 1992.
RootSpace soil cells are designed with large apertures to provide vast unrestricted growth for tree roots. When a root does grow into an Upright Panel (or “leg”) of the RootSpace structure, it breaks into fibrous rooting around the Upright Panel and continues its growth without harm to the system. For more details on how roots colonize in RootSpace, download our Roots in Soil Cells report.
RootSpace ArborSystem replicates the “forest” environment that a tree requires to thrive, and therefore a tree planted in RootSpace will theoretically live as long as a tree in a forest setting, assuming that the amount of the system used is sufficient for the particular tree species.
The average cost of the system is $6 to $7 USD per cubic foot ($275 to $320 CAD per cubic meter) (which includes RootSpace soil cells, Irrigation/Aeration, Root Management, and filterfabrics/geogrids).
