The Final Degree Project of Laura Ruiz Figueroa (student of Environmental Engineering and Industrial Organization) is entitled "Evaluation through indicators of the ecosystem services of a productive green roof" that she has carried out together with the MadreenRoof research group of the Institute of Agrarian Sciences of the CSIC. Laura herself developed a proposal of indicators to measure the environmental and social benefits that gardens can offer on the roofs of the city of Madrid. Later, he validated his proposal using the data that the group had obtained, comparing the different substrates that they had produced from compost and biochar from different residues that we found in our environment, such as: coffee grounds, coffee husks, algae and pruning trees. The objective is to replace peat, the commercial substrate obtained from peat bogs, natural ecosystems that have captured tons of CO2 for hundreds of years by the previously mentioned substrates. The results indicate that productivity, food security, flood mitigation, reduction of the heat island effect in the city, the capture of particles and greenhouse gases or the increase in biodiversity, among others, are ecosystem services or benefits. better in many cases when using substrates based on compost and biochar. The potential of productive green roofs for the citizens of Madrid is very beneficial and their large-scale implementation deserves to be further studied.

With this project, Laura has obtained a Special Mention in these awards (organized by the Madrid City Council in collaboration with Madrid universities), for the quality and innovation that the jury has considered in her work. In this edition, her works were related to food in Health Sciences, the circular economy or agronomy. The winners went to the Food Innovation Hub in Madrid on December 15 to receive their awards.