Part of Ford's buildings are seen from the rooftop garden on the Ford Dearborn Truck Plant in Dearborn, Mich. The living roof has been on the building for 10 years and covers 10.4 acres.

Ten years after Ford planted vegetation atop a massive truck assembly plant, the largest living roof in the U.S. is flourishing, and others have followed the automaker’s lead.

Ford was a pioneer a decade ago when it created a living roof on top of the Dearborn (Mich.) Truck Plant. It was a unique way to save on roofing materials and cooling costs while addressing water runoff and other ecological concerns.

“Ford was incredibly courageous and forward thinking when they evaluated and moved forward with a green roof,” said Clayton Rush, manager of Xero Flor America, of Durham, N.C., whose parent company in Germany worked with Ford on the project. “They became a well-recognized pioneer.”

The success of the truck plant roof prompted Ford to do more.

A year ago, when a 2,500-square-foot portion of Ford headquarters needed to be redone, the automaker turned a second time to water absorbing plants.

When Ford took the plunge, there were fewer than 50 living roofs in the U.S. Today, there are about 10,000 and growing, Rush said, with numerous companies supplying them. They adorn everything from doghouses and homes to commercial, government and academic buildings.

Grasses now grow on the Empire State building; Nintendo headquarters in Redmond, Wash.; a FedEx facility at Chicago O’Hare International Airport; and a 7-acre spread atop the Javits Convention Center in New York.

After Ford’s large-scale project, the idea gained popularity, said Don Russell, who worked in Ford’s environmental quality office in 2000, when the idea took root. “The rest of my career was giving presentations and responding to mail about it,” he said. He retired in 2006.

Rush said a living roof can last 35 to 70 years, compared with conventional roofs that have to be replaced after 15 years, at a lot of cost and disruption.

Vegetation keeps the roof, and the building it covers, cooler.