White Roof Project

Have You Heard Of The White Roof Project?

With society’s growing environmental problems including waste, resource scarcity and climate change, new ways of addressing these issues are constantly being sought, such as the White Roof Project.

Simple actions such as using eco friendly products have been gaining attention and popularity, as has the simple action of painting the roof of a building white.

Yes – painting your roof white can make a difference. The White Roof Project, an initiative that began in the US, has been taking the world by storm.

It is based on the science that painting roofs white reflects sun back into the atmosphere rather than absorbing heat like a darker roof does. This helps to reduce the earth’s heat, cut carbon emissions, and save money on energy bills.

Paint five per cent of rooftops in solar reflective white paint each year globally and all roofs would be white by 2030, preventing 24 billion tonnes of CO2 pollution. That’s around one whole year of carbon emissions.

Studies in Melbourne have also supported the call for more white roofs. Research from the University of Melbourne and the City of Melbourne uncovered the benefits of white roofs for residential, commercial and industrial buildings.

“Reflective white paint on commercial building roofs reduces the energy used to cool the building. Melbourne’s CBD has over 3,500,000 square meters of lettable commercial space. If the roofs of these buildings were painted white, the city could in theory reduce its CO2 emissions by 4.5 million MJ per year, 1.5 million kilos of CO2 or 3 million black balloons,” said Dr Dominique Hes, a senior lecturer in sustainable architecture and lead author of the research, from the University of Melbourne.

“White roofs are a low cost solution in making buildings more sustainable, particularly for our older buildings. And if our air conditioners are not working as hard, there are financial benefits for buildings owners as well,” said Dr Hes, summing up the benefits of the white roof.

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