The idea of painting roads and rooftops white in order to combat carbon emissions has been around for years. It is surprisingly simple and effective and yet has not been implemented much.
A study at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that cooler pavement and roofs leads to cooler cities and an overall cooler world.
Since buildings with white roofs reflect far more sun than those with black roofs, these buildings stay cooler. Less air conditioning has to be used, lowering the overall energy required to run the building.
Also buildings with black roofs heat the space below them and this heat is carried spread by the wind. This raises the ambient air temperature in what is known as the urban heat island effect. Black roofs also radiate energy back into the atmosphere to be absorbed by clouds. This heat is then trapped by the greenhouse effect.
As such, white roofs is one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways to reduce our carbon emissions. In an initiative launched by the Energy Department, the federal government hopes to exemplify the benefits by using these light roofs on their buildings.