GO GREEN WITH Your Flat Roof!

Commercial  TPO and PVC are both considered to be highly reflective, reflecting up to 90% of heat back into the atmosphere.  This means that one of these membranes can help you save hundreds of dollars on your energy bills.  Both are Energy Star Rated for their cool properties. White roofs collect a lot of dirt and dust over their lifetime, thereby decreasing their energy efficiency.  However, they still remain highly reflective. Darker color PVC and TPO membranes are still formulated to have light-reflective properties and offer energy savings. Modified Bitumen and EPDM offer the lowest energy efficiency.  In fact, because they are so dark, they can heat up to 170 degrees in the summer, making your HVAC system run over-time and rake up huge energy bills. Both TPO and PVC are 100% recyclable. At the end of their service lives, old membranes get recycled back into making new ones. It is possible to install PVC over an old roof, thus eliminating tear off, which cuts your costs and saves landfill space.  EPDM, Tar & Gravel, Modified Bitumen are not Eco-friendly and cannot be recycled, because they are made from petroleum based by-products.  Therefore, they have to be land-filled at the end of their service lives.  A rooftop garden installed on a flat roof improves air quality and reduces the heat island effect in large urban areas.

 Residential Energy Star-qualified shingles come in a variety of colors, including dark colors, even dark browns and grays.  They are designed with special granules that make them more reflective than standard asphalt, so they absorb less heat.  Surface temperatures can be as much as 100 degrees Fahrenheit lower on roofs with qualified shingles.  That can translate into a 10 to 15 percent reduction in the amount of energy needed to cool the building during peak cooling periods. In general, dark colors tend to absorb more heat, and on roofs, that heat is transferred to the building.  Studies by the Heat Island Group and the Florida Solar Energy Center have shown that buildings with dark roofs required up to 40 percent more energy to cool than buildings with light-colored or reflective roofs.  Even among the qualified Energy Star shingles, the lighter ones tend to carry a better Energy Star rating than the darker ones. The hotter the roof, the more energy it takes to cool the building beneath it.  So, in 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program began rating roofing materials for energy efficiency.  Traditionally, asphalt shingles have been among the hottest roofing materials available, but manufacturers have been finding ways to make them more reflective and reduce the amount of heat they absorb.  Many of them have earned an Energy Star rating. 

• Reduce energy, gas, and water
• Create a healthy and productive indoor environment for Employees
• Durability of building material and design
• Flexibility for building use to change over time
• Stay current with the competition
• Tax credits and deductibles for investing in energy saving technology
• Attract high quality tenants – better rent for developers
• Recruit and retain high quality employees and business associates
• Participate in the eco-friendly movement
• Increase property and resale value