Hot Cities and Cool Roofs

(Originally published in the September 2011 issues of Merchant Magazine and Building Products Digest.)

This summer’s heat waves have been horrendous.  Hot weather is known as a silent killer and is responsible for more weather related deaths than tornados, hurricanes and blizzards, combined.  Summer days are hotter than they used to be, setting all kinds of records, but even worse are the hot nights.  Overnight lows are also setting records for high heat, making it much more difficult for at-risk populations, such as the very young and very old, to recover. 

In cities, the problem is worsened again by something called the Urban Heat Island Effect.  Cities are paved with asphalt and built up with concrete and other materials that absorb solar radiation during the day and re-radiate it during the night.  Cities can be 15° F hotter in the daytime and 22° F warmer overnight than neighboring suburbs.  More city heat means more air conditioning and more electricity consumed, leading to blackouts and, of course, more carbon emitted into the atmosphere. 

The heat island effect has been understood for a long time – I first learned about it in high school.  But more recent scientific knowledge indicates that we should expect more extreme heat waves like those this summer.  I’ve argued in this column and elsewhere (see our in-depth report, The Future of Home Improvement, here: www.williamverde.com), that dealers and distributors have an obligation to learn to anticipate changing climate and weather patterns in order to serve their communities, as well as boost their revenue.  In fact, as purveyors of building supplies, we are in a prime position to take the lead on mitigating the effects of hot summer nights and urban heat islands.

There are a variety of ways we can make our cities cooler, simply and affordably.  Replacing high thermal mass materials with trees and green space is one effective strategy and where we need to go, long term.  Living roofs are being boosted in major cities for just this reason.  But there’s another strategy that can deliver results in the short term, is less expensive, and offers opportunities for most dealers and distributors right now. 

Increasing albedo, or the ability of surfaces to reflect solar radiation, using special paints and coatings, or reflective roofing materials can dramatically reduce heat gain and electricity demand.  A white roof, for example, can reflect almost 90% of the sun’s radiation, reducing interior heat and the need for air conditioning.  And the savings are not trivial.  The White Roof Project (www.whiteroofproject.com) reports that about 10% of electricity produced by cities is used to compensate for the urban heat island effect.  If enough roofs were painted white, the nation could be saving billions of dollars and hundreds of lives.  And dealers could be doing well, while doing good.

Two excellent resources to help you stock appropriate roof coatings for your community, or improve your existing product mix, are Energy Star (www.energystar.gov) and Cool Roof Rating Council (www.coolroofs.org).  Keep in mind, reflective shingles and roofing tiles offer effective solutions for residential applications, too.  But don’t stop there.  Develop a promotional strategy that combines in-store materials with larger-scale efforts in the community.  In-store signage should educate customers, highlight rebate opportunities, and promote city-wide campaigns.  Get involved and get your manufacturers involved.  New York area dealers might ally themselves with the White Roof Project, for example.  Dealers in other sizzling cities might think about creating their own “white roof projects” in conjunction with local city agencies or non-profit organizations.  Last but not least, teach your staff about the urban heat island effect and the importance of taking measures to reduce it.  It can literally save lives.

The Long View

(This piece was originally published in the January 2011 issues of Merchant Magazine and Building Products Digest.)

“In the long run, we’ll all be dead.” That unfortunate utterance from a now dead economist has provided a handy excuse for shortsighted business planners focused only on extracting the maximum profit from the here and now. That kind of thinking is responsible for many business failures, yes, but also many environmental problems more daunting even than the federal deficit. Failure to consider the future implications of decisions made today virtually guarantees a legacy of difficulty and hardship for the next generation.

Taking the long view, on the other hand, is at the heart of green thinking. Therefore, this January, I encourage you to forget about 2011’s top trends for a moment and invest some quality time considering the next decade and the opportunities and threats it will present to your business and community.

The best place to start is at the end – what will your business look like in 2020? Has it been passed down to your children? Acquired, shut down or thriving with you securely at the helm? Is it connected to the same old supply chain? Is the local economy vibrant and strong, or struggling along? Most importantly, what do you want your business to look like and what sort of realistic scenarios will lead you there? To answer these questions one must first consider the long term forces reshaping our industry.

The next decade will see plenty of change and probably as many surprises as the last. Obviously, “green building” is on its way to becoming the new normal, whether it’s LEED or another approach, creating new opportunities for growth. Transport fuel prices are trending higher with the very real possibility that periodic episodes of price volatility will devastate marginal businesses. Households, businesses and governments will continue to shift purchasing to less toxic and more eco-efficient products from socially responsible producers. Competition between “big box” chains and independent dealers will continue, with increasing activism from localization groups. The green DIY and urban agriculture movements will continue to take root across the country. And a host of global and domestic macroeconomic factors will attenuate or amplify these opportunities and threats.

But underlying whatever scenario one wants to envision for the next ten years, there is the inescapable reality that the global climate system is changing, most likely due to human activity. The last decade was the warmest on record, but more important to consider are the local and regional impacts. Damaging and costly extreme weather is becoming more common. NASA has published a slideshow depicting the number of temperature anomalies each decade going back to 1880, (earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/). The trend is unmistakable, which should be cause for concern, especially in the context of the massively destructive heat wave that hit Russia last summer.

Regional climate patterns are changing in ways that dealers and distributors should understand and anticipate. The US Global Change Research Program, (www.globalchange.gov), provides useful analysis for each region of the country. Depending on your location, expect more drought, more fires, more floods, more heat waves and cold snaps, and more precipitation when it comes. And when these “anomalies” occur, they will probably be at the wrong time, disrupting water supplies, agricultural harvests, supply chain logistics and more.

These broad trends suggest that merchandising and business model innovations will be required to sustain a successful business. Households, businesses and governments will be forced to invest in mitigation and adaptation strategies. Dealers will, too. But those long-term planners among them will be prepared to weather whatever the decade has in store, with solutions that will help their customers and communities, too.