contracting spin-out from Portland’s
municipal department of environmental
services, whose emphasis was building
green infrastructure and green roofs to
manage storm water runoff along the
WillametteRiver.
Because most of the necessary products at
the timewere either coming fromEurope or
were repurposed products initial ly
engineered for non-green roof functions,
the company set about designing and
patenting technolog y for i ts own
installation needs. It eventually became a
full-scale product company – and Keitges
and some investment colleagues purchased
the business five years ago.
ColumbiaGreen’s products are now sold on
a private-label basis through roofing
membrane companies, which means one
warranty that covers both the roof
membrane and the green roof system,and a
single point of contact. Its partners in that
endeavor include Firestone Building
Products , Fiber l i te/Green, Henr y,
Henry/Bakor, Malarkey Roofing Products,
DerbigumandKemper System.
Only 1 percent of small businesses in the
U.S. have an export component, and
ColumbiaGreen is part of that select group,
deriving between 20 and 30 percent of its
annual revenue through exports to Canada.
Toronto is an especially hot market because
of a recent mandate for green roofs on new
construction.
The majority of the company’s business
comes from commercial development, and
i t ’s pa r t i cu l a r l y impa c t f u l a s an
augmentation of storm water management
capabilities in cities whose underground
infrastructure is particularly old. Green
roofs often provide a suitable, green way to
update that infrastructure because they’re
ideally suited for an otherwise empty urban
rooftop environment.
The more water retained by a green roof,
the less that flows into aging underground
pipes and creates cost l y l eaks or
inconvenient backups, overflows and
floods.
“The reason the green roof market has
grown year over year is because it’s empty
space that these building owners can use as a
July-August 2014
| BusinessWorld | 127
