On May 4, 2007, Greensburg, Kan., was hit by an EF5 tornado that ripped a 1.7-mile path of destruction through the town of about 800 residents. With winds that reached 205 miles per hour, the strongest tornado to hit the U.S. in eight years killed 11 people.
When the City of Minneapolis needed to replace
the nearly two-decades-old roof of the Target
Center, the Upper
Midwest’s premier entertainment facility, it took a decidedly
progressive approach.
The National Great Rivers Research and Education
Center serves as both a museum and a scientific research facility for
individuals interested in how the ecosystem functions at the confluence of the
Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois rivers.
Guided by its Quaker values, the prestigious Sidwell Friends School is committed to practicing responsible environmental stewardship. Sidwell’s Middle School Building is the first K-12 school in the United States to earn a LEED Platinum rating and the first-ever LEED Platinum building constructed in Washington, D.C.
The green movement has taken over our way of thinking. From hybrid cars traveling the streets to reusable shopping bags being offered in grocery stores, we find these green initiatives everywhere we go.
Completed in the spring of 2008, the cool and green roof demonstration/research project of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based architecture and design firm A3C took place atop its UrbEn Retreat. The project was implemented with the assistance of Firestone Building Products and in collaboration with Prof. Moji Nawab of the University of Michigan’s Sustainable Design Research Lab.
As green building strategies evolve to keep up with increasingly stringent building energy codes and standards, so do cool roofs. A roof, as any other building component, can be selected to best serve a particular purpose, such as weather resistance or thermal regulation. Cool roofs are optimally designed to minimize the transfer of heat from the sun to the interior of a building.
Sustainability and green design are the largest emerging trends driving change in the roofing industry today. Frequently you will find the terms used separately or synonymously, indicating confusion in true meaning.
