Saving Billions by Managing Urban Sun and Rain

We have long known that smarter material choices for our roofs and pavements would lead to significant improvements in urban economies and quality of life. Now, a report for the District of Columbia municipal government shows just how big those net benefits can be by evaluating the potential costs and benefits of urban “sun and rain management” in the District. Cities that manage the sun’s energy with cool and green roofs and pavements and manage stormwater with green infrastructure will unlock billions in net benefits over the life of those investments.

The report documents how D.C. could save $2 billion with smart surface strategies, such as cool roofs, green roofs, solar PV and porous pavements while enhancing health and livability and cutting summer peak temperatures.

When increased tourism from more comfortable outdoor conditions are factored in, the net present value benefit exceeds $5 billion! Partners in this work include the American Institute of Architects, the National League of Cities, Global Cool Cities Alliance, DowntownDC Business Improvement District, the U.S. Green Building Council, the National Housing Trust and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

The report found that implementing these smart surface solutions city-wide would cost effectively achieve a range D.C. sustainability, livability and competitiveness objectives, including:

Energy: Reduce electricity purchases from the grid by 8.5 percent relative to 2013 consumption levels
Water: Reduce stormwater runoff to protect local water bodies while reducing potable water use
Climate & Environment: By full implementation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by approximately 5.5 percent of 2013 emissions while enhancing resilience to climate change by reducing city temperatures
Built Environment: Improve sustainability performance of new and existing buildings
Nature: Expand tree canopy and other green landscape to enhance city-wide ecosystem
Jobs & Economy: Create more than 2,400 well-paying green jobs in the District over 40 years
Equity & Diversity: Improve livability, particularly in low-income areas that tend to have less green cover and efficient buildings
Health & Wellness: Improve air quality and public health of District residents and visitors

For those looking to recreate this work in their city, the report includes a highly detailed walk-through of the methodology and sources for the findings.

President’s Climate Preparedness Task Force Releases Recommondations

Yesterday, the White House State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force On Climate Preparedness and Resilience released their recommendations to improve climate adaptation and resiliency planning for cities and states around the country. Climate Central spells out what’s in the report, and notes the panel’s interest in collecting data to pinpoint needs and challenges:

The panel asked the government to develop new health tracking tools. It also wants it to identify the most vulnerable communities and to consider climate change when evaluating federal programs designed to help them.

Two recent GCCA studies explain how reflective surfaces could save lives during extreme heat events in Washington, DC, and in Baltimore, New York and Los Angeles.

City governments are already taking steps to address the urban heat island effect in their communities. A recent survey by GCCA and ACEEE, details the efforts in 26 major North American cities, involving reflective roofing and pavements.

To learn more, take a look at this White House fact sheet, which summarizes the report.

New Thinking on Cool Roof in Cool Climates

Roofing Magazine’s September/October edition includes an article from GCCA that examines some of the new research that is toppling the myth that cool roofs are not suitable in cool climates. You can check it out over at their website. I focus on two studies in the article, but these two are only the latest analyses that indicate that cool roofing should be a considered when putting on new roofs in cold climates and further support the effort to expand cool roof requirements in building codes at least to Climate Zone 4a and 4b. (the yellow zone on the map below).

There Is Evidence Cool Roofs Provide Benefits to Buildings in Climate Zones 4 through 8

Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative

Helping to Demonstrate the Benefits of a Cooler Los Angeles as a Model for Other Cities

The Los Angeles Urban Cooling Collaborative (LAUCC) is a unique national partnership between nonprofit groups, universities, government agencies and other experts in urban heat with the aim of achieving a cooler, more prosperous, and healthier Los Angeles by addressing current and future challenges posed by urban heat. By mid-century, average temperatures in Los Angeles are expected to rise by 3 to 7°F. Heat stress driven by this kind of warming is associated with many negative health outcomes, including premature death, which is expected to become more common as the planet continues to warm. These effects are particularly pronounced in highly urbanized areas like Los Angeles.

The LAUCC brings together policy and implementation experts, world-class research institutions and others to empower communities, city officials, and other key stakeholders to act on the urgency and realize the full value of robust planning today for a cooler city tomorrow.

The LAUCC Strategy

To realize the opportunities of a cooler Los Angeles, LAUCC will:

Quantify the health impacts of installing reflective roofs and vegetation at the neighborhood level with original research.
Demonstrate the real-world impact of these strategies in select Los Angeles communities. Deliverable: Community-scale demonstration projects in one to three neighborhoods.
Leverage existing relationships with city officials and other stakeholders to ensure that these cool strategies are prioritized in city and utility policymaking.

This cutting-edge research will produce a framework that will be shared nationally with decision makers and stakeholders, community health organizations, NGOs, and urban forestry groups.
LAUCC is seeking funding and partners interested in tackling the challenge of urban heat and create a climate-resilient Los Angeles. Please contact Kurt Shickman (kurt at globalcoolcities.org) if you are interested in learning more!

Partners include:

New Thinking on Cool Roofs in Cool Climates

I wrote an article for Roofing Magazine’s September/October edition that examines some of the new research that is toppling the myth that cool roofs are not suitable in cool climates. You can check it out over at their website. I focus on two studies in the article, but these two are only the latest analyses that indicate that cool roofing should be a considered when putting on new roofs in cold climates and further support the effort to expand cool roof requirements in building codes at least to Climate Zone 4a and 4b. (the yellow zone on the map).

There Is Evidence Cool Roofs Provide Benefits to Buildings in Climate Zones 4 through 8

Keeping Surfaces Stronger and Longer Lasting with Reflectivity

It is well-known that surfaces that stay cooler do not expand and contract as much as those that get hotter. Reduced thermal expansion can mean longer lasting roofs, solar panels, concrete, and other surfaces.

Coatings manufacturer Epox-Z’s recent press release highlights a new product that minimizes thermal cracking — a major cause of concrete failure. It shows how going with a light-colored, solar reflective outer surface can pay off.

Longer product life means less landfill waste and improved project economics. It feels good to get more bang for your buck!

Is Increasing Reflectivity Risky for Cities? Nope.

Earlier this year, Altostratus and CalEPA rolled out a UHI Index that quantifies the intensity of urban heat. For the first time, we can now measure and visualize the severity of the heat challenges facing cities. You can check out the details from CalEPA here. This really is a great new tool that we’d like to see spread across the country and beyond.

As you’d expect, most of the media coverage of the UHI Index has been positive. Several articles noted that the Index highlights the challenge of addressing UHI at a local level because heat transfers from one part of the city to areas downwind. This finding highlights the importance of a regional approach to urban heat.

A few articles (like this one) note that increasing reflectivity above some threshold can be bad for cities. This is a misreading of the Altostratus analysis. Rather than a threshold between good and bad, the analysis identifies that there are optimum amounts of reflectivity. Cities exceeding that optimum level will see diminishing, but still positive, returns.

New Infographic Explains Peak Savings from Cool Roofs

Sika USA, a roofing manufacturer, has a series of really good infographics covering a variety of cool roof topics. The latest shows how cool roofs help building owners save significantly on their energy bills by reducing peak demand charges. The graphic clarifies an important but complicated and fairly wonky issue. Check it out on their website here: http://usa.sarnafil.sika.com/en/group/roofing-sustainability/peak-energy-demand-charges.html

New Energy & Buildings paper highlights cool communities in CA and beyond

A new paper now in press in Energy and Buildings highlights local and state initiatives to advance cool roofs, cool pavements, and urban vegetation in California and beyond.

In particular, the paper reviews efforts that two of California’s largest school districts have undertaken to deploy cool community measures to keep schoolyards cooler and reduce energy bills. The paper also updates how cool community measures are being included as components of local climate action and adaptation plans and of California’s statewide guidelines for extreme heat adaptation.

You can download the full paper through ScienceDirect here.

Abstract
In 2006, California introduced the Global Warming Solutions Act (Assembly Bill 32), which requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. “Cool community” strategies, including cool roofs, cool pavements, cool walls and urban vegetation, have been identified as voluntary measures with potential to reduce statewide emissions. In addition, cool community strategies provide co-benefits for residents of California, such as reduced utility bills, improved air quality and enhanced urban livability. To achieve these savings, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has worked with state and local officials, non-profit organizations, school districts, utilities, and manufacturers for 4 years to advance the science and implementation of cool community strategies. This paper summarizes the accomplishments of this program, as well as recent developments in cool community policy in California and other national and international efforts. We also outline lessons learned from these efforts to characterize successful programs and policies to be replicated in the future.

Chicago Marks a Deadly Anniversary

This month marks the 20^th anniversary of the deadly heatwave in Chicago, IL, which killed an estimated 739 people and showed that even in northern climates, urban heat kills. Our world was already warming in 1995, but 20 years ago this northern city wasn’t used to these extreme heat events and many Chicago residents didn’t have air conditioning units in their homes or apartments. Most of the victims of this extreme heat were either the very young, or elderly people living in poor neighborhoods, too afraid of crime to open windows or sleep outside.

As this article containing first-hand accounts from the key players reports, the residents, city officials and first responders were ill-prepared for such a deadly natural disaster twenty years ago. City officials were slow to respond. First responders and hospitals were understaffed and unable to help residents survive the extreme heat. And residents failed to listen when heat advisories were finally issued. Heat like this wasn’t supposed to hit a northern city like Chicago after all, and hundreds of people paid the price.

City officials quickly began to look at ways to bring down city temperatures after that tragic heat wave. Chicago was one of the first cities to require the deployment of cool roofing technology. Their 2001 Urban Heat Island Ordinance wrote cool (green, solar & white) roofs into law, and they’ve been building on that ever since.

This new ordinance is paying off. Yale researchers reviewedthe changes between 1995 and 2009 in Chicago’s vegetated and reflective surfaces. Researchers found that where reflectivity increased, temperatures went down. Most of the reflectivity increases in Chicago that brought down temperatures were a result of the new reflective roofs that were installed because of the new energy efficiency zoning codes in this northern climate.

Over the past 20 years, deadly heatwaves have hit cities all over the world. In one major disaster, 70,000 people lost their lives in Europe’s 2003 heat wave. Each year, heat records are shattered globally. According to NOAA, 2014 was the 18th straight year where average temperatures have topped 20th century averages in the United States. It was also the hottest year on record. NOAA just released data on the first half of this year showing that 2015 is on track to blow past last year’s records. These heat-waves are here to stay and are expected to get worse, and city officials everywhere are a beginning to understand the urgent need to adapt in order to protect their residents.

While these first-hand accounts of past heat-related disasters show us how far we’ve come in the past 20 years, it also shows us how important it is to plan for future heat events as our world grows ever-warmer. Research shows that reflective surfaces help bring down urban temperatures and save lives – even in northern cities like Chicago. That’s why city officials around the world are working with GCCA to adapt their cities to our changing climate.

GCCA has released several studies showing how reflective surfaces and cool roofs can save lives. For further information, please follow these links:

Evaluating the Health Benefits of Urban Cooling – GCCA worked with a top team of researchers to study how cool surfaces and vegetation save lives during extreme heat events in Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington.

Assessing the Health Impacts of Urban Heat Island Strategies in the District of Columbia – GCCA finds that cooler surfaces and more green space can save lives during heat waves in Washington, DC.

To learn how cities are working to bring down urban temperatures, please take a look at this report:

Urban Heat Island Policy Survey – GCCA and ACEEE survey 26 cities to learn how they are addressing excess urban heat.

For further information, please visit our Cool Roofs and Cool Pavement Toolkit knowledgebase, where we have over 600 studies, reports and surveys.