Columbia Research Crucial to "Green Roofs, Cool City" Conference

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Columbia Research Crucial to "Green Roofs, Cool City" Conference

BRONX, NY-On the brisk morning of March 3rd, researchers from Columbia University joined city officials, architects, urban planners, building managers, and others from the local community for the "Green Roofs, Cool City" Conference at The New York Botanical Garden in the South Bronx.

The conference highlighted research and projects initiated by the Cool City Project, started at Columbia University with funding from ISERP and support from the Earth Institute. The project, led by Elliott Sclar (GSAPP), Patrick Kinney (Environmental Health Science), and Joyce Rosenthal (Urban Planning), assesses the impacts of the urban heat island effect in New York City, and potential benefits of heat island mitigation in New York City neighborhoods, with particular interest in cooling technologies that conserve peak load electricity generation, and improve air quality and general public health.

The rooftop meadow on the American Banknote Building (Hunt's Point, South Bronx)

by Kathleen Bakewell, HM White Site Architects

The conference showcased leading experts in green roof technology and its benefits for the NYC built environment. The conversion of rooftops from absorptive manmade surfaces to green rooftops was demonstrated to reduce heat stress, provide health benefits, reduce pollution, and save money.

At Thursday's conference, Joyce Rosenthal and partners from Sustainable South Bronx and HM White Site Architects discussed the dangers of the urban heat island effect and presented the economic, public health and environmental benefits of cooler and green, living roofs. Majora Carter, Executive Director of the Sustainable South Bronx introduced their new initiative, "South Bronx New Roofs Demonstration Project," a project that will apply green roof technologies to the Banknote Building in the Hunt's Point section of the Bronx. The South Bronx NDP team, led by Majora Carter of SSB, Joyce Rosenthal of Columbia University, and Kathleen Bakewell of HM White Site Architects, formed a multi-disciplinary team in the summer of 2002 merging community activism, landscape architecture, and scientific and policy research. Working with support from Con Edison, Carlisle Syntec Systems and Coastal Specified Products, the Banknote Building roof project will offer an innovative cool and green roof design, as a foundation for promoting awareness, practical knowledge, energy savings and environmental improvements in the South Bronx.

The day opened with remarks from Arthur Kressner, Director of Research & Development at Con Edison, and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, Jr., who spoke enthusiastically about their partnership and dedication to community-building in the Bronx. Calling for a "sound investment," Carrion emphasized the need to find a nexus between "good business" and policies that reduce energy consumption and pollution, save money, and help people-a winning combination for all parties involved.

Michael Berkshire, Green Projects Administrator in Chicago's Department of Planning & Development, delivered the keynote address. The City of Chicago represents a prototype for NYC as it begins to install its own green roofs. Chicago, interested in becoming the "greenest city in the nation," boasts more than 80 municipal and private green roofs totaling more than 1 million square feet in various stages of installation. Chicago recently adopted a policy encouraging, and in many instances, requiring all developments undergoing Department of Planning and Development review to have green roofs. A tone of friendly competition ensued between Chicago and the Bronx following Berkshire's presentation, with the New Yorkers vying to close the green gap.

The "Green Roofs, Cool City" Conference articulated a growing realization that NYC needs to adopt sustainable solutions to mitigate the urban heat island effect. Since starting in 2001, Columbia University's Cool City Project has sought to support research on New York City's urban heat island effect, evaluate mitigation techniques through pilot cool and green rooftop demonstration projects, and assess the benefits of city-wide adoption of community-based cooling strategies, such as living roofs, street trees and cooler pavements.

The project has supported this burgeoning citywide initiative by researching the City's heat island effect, organizing meetings with Columbia faculty and students and NYC officials to discuss cool and green roof techniques and their impacts, working with faculty, community organizations and other groups to develop interdisciplinary research proposals to evaluate the energy and environmental impacts of the use of cool and green roof technologies in New York City, and making research results publicly available. NYC residents, neighborhood groups, urban planners, environmental managers, and other decision-makers can use existing cool and green roof techniques to adapt the built environment to save money, reduce pollution, and improve public health.

Co-investigators of the project are now completing research for the New York Climate & Health Project, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-funded interdisciplinary study of the potential impacts on air quality and human health from changing climate and land use in the NYC metropolitan area during the next eighty years. The results of this Columbia-based research will provide better tools for assessing the regional and local impacts of climate change on air quality and public health in cities across the nation.