Big. Looming. Grey. As concrete and steel stretch overhead, reaching almost endlessly above and around, sometimes city dwellers lose sight of the natural side of things.
But with over half the global population living in urban areas, more and more people are needing a way to balance metropolitan and agrarian states of mind. Cities are generally seen as the opposite of natural landscapes, absorbing energy and spewing out smog, choking the planet with car fumes and consumption. In such a grey world, it’s tough to find any green.
But did you hear about France?
In a law passed in March, France decreed that all rooftops on new buildings built in commercial zones must be either partially covered in plants or solar panels.
This is huge. Green rooftop initiatives have some incredible benefits, both from a private and public perspective. They can vary in scope and scale, from just a few inches of dirt and grass to fully functioning parks with trees. Gardens on rooftops provide enormous energy savings. By further insulating the building, less heat is required to warm it and less air conditioning to cool it. This translates to less energy being used, more money saved, and less waste. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a phenomenon that occurs in metropolitan areas where factors such as massive population, excess vehicles and less vegetation raise temperatures. According to the EPA, these discrepancies can lead to a 22 degree fahrenheit difference in air temperature in the evening.
Furthermore, exposed areas such as sidewalks can be 50-90 degrees fahrenheit hotter than the air, meaning super hot air is coming off of asphalts and concrete, making the overall air hotter.
This increases peak energy demands in the summer time as people crank up their A.C.’s, which in turn increases energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and reduces air quality. Black rooftops are some of the biggest contributors to this temperature difference. By converting rooftops to gardens, this addition can be severely limited.
Green rooftops also retain an immense amount of rainwater. In the winter, rooftops hold onto 20-40 percent of precipitation, and in the summer that number jumps to to 70-90 percent. This helps mitigate strain on sewage systems by reducing building runoff and decreasing stress during major flow periods.
The benefits just keep coming. Rooftop gardens also help filter pollutants from rainwater, provide habitats for animals in the urban jungle, and reduce noise levels from outside by about 40 decibels. The significant increase of urban vegetation also helps purify the air in big cities.
And that’s just half of it. The other option for new buildings in France is putting up solar panels instead of green rooftops. France has been lagging behind the rest of Europe in generating energy from photovoltaic sources in the past few years, but with this new initiative they’ll become competitive in the field.
This really seems like a catalyst for other countries to start changing the way they use rooftop space. This past July, the Obama administration announced an initiative aimed at making solar power more accessible to low-income communities. According to the Baltimore Sun, The White House announced it “tripled its goal of renewable energy produced in federal housing to 300 megawatts by 2020.”
And with a new industry comes new jobs. The United States has doubled the electricity generated from solar power in the past year, and is slated to continue investing in the area.
American Rivers suggested that an investment of $10 billion in water efficiency and renewable energy in the United States could create 190,000 jobs and build 48.5 billion square feet of green rooftop area.
In June, Germany announced that they were generating over 50 percent of their energy from solar power, the first time in history this has happened. They’re aiming at producing 100 percent of the country’s energy needs through reusable sources by 2050, though at this rate they may reach that goal sooner.
The U.K. installed more solar power facilities than any other European country in 2014, and Italy has been growing its solar market steadily.
All this leads up to the fact that we’re on the cusp of something huge. As of 2012 the world had invested over $200 billion in renewable energy. The zeitgeist is shifting and the world over is trying to move away from energy sources such as coal and natural gasses.
The renewable revolution is coming, we just need to keep fighting for it.
TAKE ACTION NOW by calling on world leaders to support Goal 7 in The Global Goals.