Resources
Building owners make many critical decisions – the building exterior should be one of them. When buying a property or making maintenance and upgrade decisions, choose cool surfaces to protect your investment and your community.
Benefits
In addition to saving money, cool roofs and cool exterior walls can extend the life of the surface, reduce maintenance costs, and lower air conditioner use. Learn more about the benefits to your building!
Is a Cool Roof Right for My Building?
Through a series of Yes/No questions, the MAPC Cool Roof Suitability Self-Assessment can help you evaluate your roof, building, and neighborhood and determine if a cool roof is both feasible and beneficial for your property.
Visit How to Buy for additional guidance on selecting a cool product.
How to Fund?
Most cool products are a comparable price to hot roofs and walls. However, financial incentives, including rebates, whole building incentives, and cool roof loans are offered by some utilities and agencies.
To find out if there are any programs in your location, visit the CRRC website and check with your roofing contractor. Nonresidential building rebate programs can be more complicated, and may also include other efficiency measures besides cool roofs. Contact the rebate program agencies to determine the probable savings associated with a cool roof rebate.
Additional Resources
Cool roofs and walls are low-hanging fruit strategies for combating extreme heat and enhancing energy efficiency. Local governments can encourage the adoption of cool surfaces through several different pathways.
Benefits
Cool surfaces benefit building owners and the community at large. Whether you are focused on mitigating urban heat islands or reducing building energy use, consider how cool surfaces can help reach your community's goals. Learn more about the benefits to your community!
Creating an Incentive Program
Aside from zoning and bylaws, local governments and municipal planners can encourage the adoption of cool roofs and cool walls in new construction and retrofitting existing roofs with incentive programs.
- The Metropolitan Area Planning Council in Boston provides in-depth guidance for municipal planners looking to create a cool roof incentive program, with lessons learned from case studies.
- For more examples of cool roof or wall financial incentives, see the CRRC’s list of rebates, incentives, and loans: Financial Incentives - Cool Roof Rating Council
Additional Resources
- Codes, Programs & Standards
- For Policymakers and Program Developers
- Product Ratings for Codes, Standards & Voluntary Programs
Smart Surfaces Coalition
- Delivering Urban Resilience: Costs and benefits of city-wide adoption of smart surfaces
Contractors help customers make many key decisions about their buildings. Knowing the benefits of cool surfaces will help your customers make informed choices.
Benefits
In addition to saving money, other benefits of a cool roof or cool exterior wall include extending the life of the surface, lowering maintenance costs, and reducing air conditioner use. Learn more from the Cool Roof Rating Council's resource for contractors!
Continuing Education Course
The Cool Roof Rating Council designed a 1-hour on-demand course that provides a deep dive on cool roofs and walls in the context of "Designing Buildings for Heat Resilience & Energy Efficiency".
- Free through AEC Daily (https://www.aecdaily.com/course.php?node_id=2185372)
- Course is registered with 28 US & Canada organizations that provide continuing education credits, including:
- AIA (American Institute of Architects)
- GBCI (Green Business Certification)
- NAHB (National Association of Home Builders)
- IIBEC (International Institute of Building Closure Consultants)
RoofersCoffeeShop is where the industry meets!
RoofersCoffeeShop® is an online resource for roofing information with a mission to provide contractors with tools and resources, training, networking, purchasing opportunities, webinars, podcasts, videos, and news. Helping roofing contractors is part of everyday business at www.rooferscoffeeshop.com.
Additional Resources
The Cool Roof Rating Council has created over a dozen educational factsheets and brochures that you can share with your customers.
Local and federal policies and investments are shifting toward more resilient solutions that will protect our communities. Manufacturers can maintain market share and de-risk operations by investing in the development and rating of cool surface products.
Benefits
Cool roofs and cool exterior walls provide many life cycle benefits that are more favorable than conventional approaches. Learn more about the Benefits of Cool Surfaces to Buildings and the Community.
Cool Surface Product Ratings
Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) administers a rating program for companies interested in having their roofing and exterior wall products listed and labeled with information about the product’s surface radiative performance (solar reflectance and thermal emittance). The ratings help inform consumers about the product’s impact on a building's energy use and heat island reduction. The CRRC lists the rated products in its Rated Products Directories.
BENEFITS OF OBTAINING A CRRC RATING
- Ratings published on the free online directories for cool roofs and walls
- Ability to use Rated Product Logo and Labels to communicate ratings to end users
- Demonstrate compliance with growing list of codes, standards, and programs that promote the use of cool exterior walls, including LEED v4.1
- Market the energy and environmental benefits of your products
More information on wall product ratings: https://coolroofs.org/programs/wall-rating-program
More information on roofing product ratings: https://coolroofs.org/programs/roof-rating-program
Additional Resources
The Cool Roof Rating Council has created over a dozen educational factsheets and brochures that you can share with your customers.
Let's Get Innovative
The US Cool Surfaces Deployment Plan has identified the need for innovative cool roofing solutions. Please see the Research, Development, and Demonstration ideas in section 4.2 of the plan.