“Sustainability” is a word you’ve probably been hearing a lot lately. In a purely ecological context, sustainability can be defined as “the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future.” For humans to live sustainably, Earth’s resources must be used at a rate at which they can be replenished. Unfortunately there is clear scientific evidence that humanity is living unsustainably, and that an unprecedented effort is needed to return human use of natural resources to within sustainable limits.
Our challenge is clear. We have to change our habits. And while it’s going to take real commitment to reduce our “carbon footprint” and work toward sustainability, fortunately there are many things we can do as individuals. The choices we make in our daily travel, the food we eat, what we buy and throw away, and especially the kinds of buildings and homes we construct can help ensure sustainability for future generations. There is already “sustainable architecture” out there, and you may be surprised to learn that the roof over your head can do a lot more than just shelter you from the rain and sun.
Most big cities, when seen from above, are black or dark gray roads and rooftops, which turn the area into a heat absorbing environmental hazard, instead of what was once trees and grass taking sunlight and CO2 and converting them into oxygen. Today’s “green” roofing materials can actually reduce a building’s carbon footprint. Many roofs around the world are literally “growing” by being planted with trees, grass, drought resistant plants and ground cover. These “live roofs” can reduce the temperature on a rooftop from 190 degree to 90 degree. And when it rains on a live roof, precipitation is captured and used by the ecosystem living on the roof, or it is safely and systematically run off.
Another of today’s “green” eco-friendly roofs is actually white! By changing a black roof to a white roof, you can reduce the temperature of your roof by 100 degrees, saving you not just air conditioning costs, but also maintenance on your roof because a cooler roof will not degrade as fast as a roof that is always scorching hot. One such product is the Cool Zone® Roof by the Duro-Last Corporation.
Cool Zone® is a highly reflective PVC membrane that is white through and through. And of all roofing choices, it is one of the best for sustainability. Not only does it reflect sunlight to save building owners up to 40% in annual electricity costs, it provides significant waste reduction throughout its entire life cycle. Sustainably speaking . . .
- Only 43 percent of PVC membrane composition is derived from nonrenewable fossil fuel feedstocks, compared with other single-ply and built-up systems that contain a much higher percentage.
- PVC requires less energy to produce than competitive products.
- PVC roofs last for 20 to 30 years.
- There is virtually no scrap in PVC roof manufacturing or installation.
- PVC roofs can often be installed directly over old roofs, eliminating landfilling tear-offs.
- PVC roofing membranes are the only roofing material that can be recycled back into roofing products.
- PVC roofing has an extremely low contribution to greenhouse gases and hazardous emissions due to closed-loop manufacturing.
From cradle to grave, a Cool Zone® Roof requires less energy to produce, less energy to ship due to its lighter weight, less time to install due to its flexible nature, and instead of ending up in a landfill, it’s recyclable. The Duro-Last Cool Zone® roofing system is a leading sustainable building product. It has earned the ENERGY STAR® label for its reflective ability; it can help buildings obtain credits under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Program (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design); and its “carbon footprint” has less of an impact on our environment and improves what we all are working toward . . . sustainability.
Studies have calculated that if every commercial building in the world — which is an amazing 37% of the world’s square footage and uses 60% of the world’s energy consumption — had a cool roof, it would lower the overall temperature of Earth by one degree.
Can one degree change the world?
At a 1 degree rise in temperature, scientists predict the plains of the western US would become hyper arid, wiping out grazing and dry land farming in the region.
With just a 1 degree increase in temperature, reefs and corals would be severely threatened, and when corals and reefs die, this would threaten food security globally.
A 2 degree temperature rise would be a death sentence for small islands like Jamaica and others in the Caribbean.
If global warming reaches 2 degree or 3 degree Celsius, we would likely see changes that would make Earth a different planet than the one we know now. The last time it was that warm was about three million years ago, when sea level was estimated to have been about 80 feet higher than today.
And should the earth’s temperature change as much as 6 degree as it did during the age of dinosaurs, it caused their extinction. From then it took hundreds of millions of years for Earth to sequester the increased amount of carbon from its atmosphere to create the environment with which we humans are familiar today.
To sustain is “to make something continue to exist”. Where’s one place to start? Just look up. Up on the roof.
For more information contact Michael Sasse, (502) 459-2216
Commonwealth Roofing Corp.
Note of local importance:
In 2008, a Brookings Institution report ranked Louisville as fifth-worst among the 100 largest U.S. metro areas in per-person carbon emissions for residential and highway energy use. A committee working through the Partnership for a Green City is expected to recommend nearly 200 steps to help tackle global warming and shrink Louisville’s “carbon footprint”. One of the steps to be taken will be to lobby for more stringent local efficiency standards in building codes.
