Ginger, I suspect that you are already aware of load-bearing issues with "sodded" roofs. Succulents are particularly heavy, being mostly water, and not particularly well-rooted. My main experience with sodded roof was planting strawberries and later succulents and grasses. Our major problems was the migration of the planting medium under gravity and rainfall. In the end, much of the soil moved off the steeper slopes (30-40 degrees) even after we installed headers along the contours. In my landscaping business we avoid planting succulents on slopes much greater than 20 degrees unless the slope is "pegged" to minimize slippage during our winter rains. The idea of planting Sedum through aviary or other fencing is sound. I've made hanging gardens using aviary wire, green peat moss, potting mix and such things as lettuce, strawberries, epiphytes (no potting mix), or small succulents. These gardens were free-standing with own post-and-frame structures to bear the load.

Insulation is the most important thing you can do for building green...regardless of how you generate a btu, the longer you hang onto it, the better.

That posting looks like an advertisement. Anyways - just in case anyone stumbles in here looking for green flooring opinions. Bamboo and cork? No way. Why would we burn the fuel shipping 4200 lbs of floors in from halfway around the planet when we could buy North American hardwood floors, manufactured here, and grown on a continent with a long history of scientific forest management? Further, we have a lot better idea that the manufacture met pollution standards by buying our flooring locally. Linoleum is a fun idea though. Can't wait - all that fine engineered maple headed our way soon!

Regarding clearing smoke from burning, a nontechnical input. We bought a very low-end insert special order from Lowe's. Don't know the CFM, but there was none lower available as this was the least expensive unit we could find. Soon after moving in, I was called outside for a minor emergency that made me forget all about what was on the stove. Hiking back afterward, though, I remembered fast when I smelled the black smoke of badly burned food. We're not talking scorch here. Scared for our house itself, I ran up the hill, the smoke with me all the way, burst through the kitchen door--and left the smoke completely behind. Outside. Although any flames had burnt themselves out, the pan was still charring away on the stove, but our little-engine-that-could vent was quite adequate to its task. There wasn't even anything to clean up on the backsplash behind the stove. I actually hated to move the pot away from it long enough to rush it outside. I don't regret that very satisfying demonstration of our vent's capability, even if I did have to throw a badly warped skillet away. The end. :)