Let There Be White!

by Jess Leber · 2010-09-08 08:19:00 UTC
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Last week, a Montreal suburb mayor proposed a new rule: All new roofs in his jurisdiction should be painted white.

No, he's not indulging some crazy design fetish. Instead, he wants his jurisdiction to take a chill pill. Energy experts say white roofs rather than your usual dark ones can cut air conditioning bills by about 10 percent—saving money and reducing energy consumption and fossil fuel emissions to boot.

Mayor Croteau is far from the only local leader embracing a new "cool roofs" trend. He is joined by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who collaborated this summer to coat 1 million square feet of rooftops in reflective paint. And one cool roof advocate—Hashem Akbari of Montreal's Concordia University—is on a mission to get many more big city mayors around the world to commit to at the very least making their municipal roofs join the cool crowd. He calls his program "A Hundred Cool Cities," and, according to NPR, Philadelphia is also on the verge of accepting his challenge. 

Cool roofs are one of the best examples out there of energy conservation advocates' most-favorite-cliche-ever: "low-hanging fruit." Painting roofs white requires absolutely zero new technology, and makes economic sense for building owners. What's more, by fulfilling this goal, the NYC Cool Roofs program could reduce the sweltering summertime NYC heat by a full degree, a huge deal for the city's stressed power grid and its carbon footprint. Because heat-absorbing dark roof and road surfaces cover up to 65 percent of their area, nearly all cities suffer the "urban heat island" effect. New York City, for example, averages about 5 to 7 degrees hotter than surrounding rural areas.

According to The Montreal Gazette, however, the roofing industry isn't a huge fan of cool roof materials yet; apparently they cost 10 to 25 percent more than traditional supplies. But, as Akbari notes, the benefit is well-worth it for the homeowner who is sweating it out in the middle of the summer.

Is your city taking on Akbari's cool roofs challenge? If you want to be a trend-setter, you can also paint your own roof white. Here are some DIY instructions (PDF), courtesy of the NYC Cool Roofs program.

Photo credit: Idaho National Laboratory via Flickr

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Jess Leber is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C
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