NYC Cool Roofs
Mayor Bloomber speaks at the NYC Cool Roofs press conference. Richard Cherry, CEC president, stands at left.
Community Environmental Center is partnering with the Mayor’s office in a brand new pilot program to help make the city cooler in the summertime. It’s called NYC Cool Roofs, and its goal is to paint hot black roofs with a cool reflective white paint, to help reflect the sun’s rays back into the atmosphere.
Because of all the hot dark surfaces in the city (like asphalt roads and roofs), New York City is 5-7 degrees hotter than the surrounding rural areas. This is called the Heat Island Effect. If we paint all our roofs with a white reflective paint, this could lower the summertime temperature of the entire city by 1 degree. This may not seem like much, but we have a lot of air conditioners in NYC. Lowering the ambient temperature by 1 degree would save NYC tenants $100 million! Even if the building does not have air conditioning, it will still help keep the building cooler.
If you are a building owner, please click here to inquire about the NYC Cool Roofs Program.
(NOTE: You must have a flat roof that is NOT gravel to participate.)
Click here if you are interested in volunteering!
Click here for the DIY Toolkit.
A volunteer paints the LIC YMCA roof after the press conference.
The heat island effect also has a direct impact on global warming. If we replace vegetation with hot dark materials like brick and asphalt, we absorb more of the sun’s rays and increase the surface temperature. This has a big effect locally (5-7 degrees in NYC), but also makes a difference across the world. If Cool Roofs become the standard, it will become one of the many ways we use to stabilize our warming climate.
Cool Roofs Benefit…
…Tenants, by making their apartments cooler and saving on air conditioner electricity bills.
…Elderly and children, by helping lessen the severity of heat-related illnesses.
…Property owners, by increasing the durability of roofs (when roofs get really hot it makes them more fragile).
…The workforce, by creating solid entry level jobs for community members who historically have fewer opportunities.
…EVERYONE! by making the city a cooler place to live, and reducing the local global warming impact.