A shopping complex in the Philippines is planning a little water conservation amidst all the fun. The Sky Garden in Quezon City is a mall complete with a roof garden, a sky dome, a river, waterfalls, and of course, stores and restaurants.

In the interest of preserving for the future scarcity of water, Sky Garden planners SM Prime Holdings felt it was their duty to find and install a water conservation system for their grounds and mostly, their rooftop garden.

Using decades old technology from Germany, the mall spent months installing a system that stores water underground for later use for watering facilities.

All in all, Sky Garden could do better. It is admirable that through installing a rooftop garden, promoting plant and insect habitat, contributing to clean air quality conditions, and reducing polluted storm water runoff.

For example, why is water needed at all on the roof? Germany, a leader in rooftop vegetation systems, advised Sky Garden to plant vegetation that does not need much watering such as local, native plants? Did Sky Garden plant flowers for aesthetic value only, and thus, create a garden that craves water? Is the river water and waterfalls part of a recycled water system?

Making malls, which are full of cement structures and asphalt parking spaces and generate tons of waste, as green as possible requires considerable commitment. If you can recycle that waste, reduce the impervious cover, you can go along way to reducing pollutants and maybe even create some biomass energy.