The operational group Go Up, of modernizing the extraction of cork from cork oaks to improve productivity, has a sub-project entitled: "Development of a green roof with cork support", taking advantage of the insulating and bioabsorbent characteristics of this natural material.
The specific goal is to design and build one pilot green cover with cork as substrate and/or support in order for: 

– Check the efficiency of the water management
- Evaluate their contribution to the improvement of the energetic behavior of the buildings
- Incentivize the economic and environmental performance of the cork forest sector through the use of the by-product of the agri-food industry itself.

In order to check the viability and efficiency of cork in its application on green roofs, from the ICSuro we are carrying out a comparative study with a self-supporting facade anchored to the ground with gabions, which is formed by two columns of four rows of gabions.

The left column is made of Babylon® gabions. This is considered the standard system, since these gabions have been used in vertical systems and there is also previous experience in their use for greywater treatment. The system on the right is the same gabion but the substrate is replaced by one 50% of a mixture of different cork granules considered a by-product.

The facade has an independent irrigation and water collection system per gabion column, which will allow checking the decontaminating capacity of the two systems: standard and with a 50% cork substrate. the thermal and acoustic insulating capacities of cork will be studied in real time with the placement of different sensors.

Initially the plants that were planted were sage and lavender. After a few weeks of observation and together with the germination results from the Department of Forestry Engineering of the University of Córdoba (UCO) it was decided to introduce a new species and partially replace the lavenders. The behavior of these three species is currently being studied as well as their survival.

During the winter the plants are compromised by climatic stress, that's why the decontamination studies will begin in spring 2020 and expected to have results in June.

However, we will soon place the sensors that will monitor in-situ and in real time the conditions of the facade to be able to obtain the first results of physical parameters for the first quarter of 2020.