New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants New Yorkers to paint their rooftops white to make buildings cooler and more energy efficient, but the city hasn’t painted hundreds of its own buildings.
The Bloomberg administration has long been aware of the advantages of white rooftops. The mayor’s much-hyped 2007 environmental plan noted the benefits of the practice, and the city’s overhauled building code in 2008 included cool roof requirements for most new buildings and renovations.
But the city still hasn’t started painting 1 million square feet of roof space on municipal buildings like homeless shelters, police precincts, fire stations and sanitation garages.
Even so, Bloomberg invited environmental guru Al Gore to appear with him Thursday in Queens to raise awareness about what he said is a relatively simple building makeover. The mayor and former vice president even grabbed rollers and painted part of a roof together.
Bloomberg said the benefits of coating a roof with reflective white paint are well known. It can reduce temperatures by as much as 60 degrees on the roofs, and by 10 to 20 degrees inside, cutting energy bills and reducing carbon emissions.
“It is quite amazing — the payback on these kinds of investments really are very quick and make an enormous difference,” the mayor said.
The city has identified some 300 buildings that could benefit from the simple makeover, but nothing has been done.
Officials say they are waiting for results from a pilot program in Queens, which is what Gore and Bloomberg were touting Thursday.
Volunteers have begun painting 100,000 square feet of rooftop space there — not city buildings — and Columbia University’s Center for Climate Systems Research will study the energy and cost savings.
The environmental and economic advantages of white roofs have been known for years.
Arthur Rosenfeld, a member of the California Energy Commission, documented the effectiveness of reflective roofs in a study 15 years ago. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently encouraged Americans to embrace the practice.
The mayor, who sought to cast himself as a national environmental leader while testing the waters for a presidential run in 2008, has said repeatedly that the city is trying to reduce its own carbon footprint.
The majority of carbon emissions caused by city government operations come from its buildings, according to a study by the city.