DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: BCIT green roof programming an early victim of an ebbing tide” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in April 2026
Note to Reader:
Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. Stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway (reproduced below), Editor’s Perspective, and the Story Behind the Story.
The edition published on April 7, 2026 featured Christine Thuring, green roof champion. She is the founding executive director and public face of GRIN, which is the acronym for Green Roof Infrastructure Network of British Columbia. The GRIN story is a great story in that it links the past to the present and future and where GRIN wants to take a re-energized green roof movement.
ONE MINUTE TAKEAWAY for the extremely busy reader
“Twenty years after inception, BCIT suspended green roof courses until further notice in 2022. Because green roofs no longer had a voice in BC, a group of us decided to do something about that. We created GRIN,” states Dr. Christine Thuring. Her claim to fame is that she is the first person in North America to obtain a green roof-focused master’s degree!
Christine Thuring is the Executive Director of the Green Roof Infrastructure Network (GRIN), a newly created society. Recruited by Dr. Maureen Connelly in 2006, she taught at BCIT’s Centre for Architectural Ecology and remembers the profile it once had.
Christine Thuring has embraced the “green roof baton” passed on to her from Maureen Connelly. In 2023, Christine engaged colleagues and co-established GRIN as a means of continuing delivery of the first credited green roof course in Canada.
Out of the ashes came GRIN, the Green Roof Infrastructure Network
“Part of the vision for GRIN is the N for network. There are so many silos out there. Everyone is saying different things and yet we are in a climate emergency and biodiversity crisis. Even the term Green Infrastructure is not all encompassing anymore.”
To Learn More:
Waterbucket eNews stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway, Editor’s Perspective and Context for Busy Reader, and the Story Behind the Story. To read the complete 3-part storyline, download a PDF copy of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: BCIT green roof programming an early victim of an ebbing tide.
DOWNLOAD A COPY: https://waterbucket.ca/wcp/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2026/03/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Christine-Thuring-and-green-roof-movement_2026.pdf