Students identify a strategy to reduce cost of cooling buildings. Adapting to Climate Change can be done at home, using a paintbrush and white paint. Three biology students from the University of San Carrlos are leading a campaign to paint house roofs white to reduce heat in the surroundings. With the support of the Cebu City Government and Smart Communications Inc., the project was launched last Friday in barangay Luz, Cebu City which serves as the project’s pilot area.
While roofs on residences and commercial buildings can offer big benefits with regard to cooling, energy costs and air quality, said Kimberly Lucero, one of the project proponents.
Dubbed “Painting Roofs White for a Greener Tomorrow: A Response to Climate Change,” the project started as a proposal that won in the Youth Climate Change Project, which aims to make students develop household solutions to global warming.
Initiated by the Siliman University, the Youth Climate Change Project is funded by the World Bank and Smart Communications. “This student project is something that we can do in our won homes. We are very happy to be part of this experiment which, if proven effective, can really make a big impact among communities,” said lawyer Jane Paredes, Smart Visayas-Mindanao public affairs senior manager.
Borg dela Serna, a project volunteer said that 40 to 50 houses in barangay luz will have their roofs painted white using an environment-friendly and toxic free paint provided by NVIRO paint.
“The offset provided by the combined cooling of roofs may provide a significant delay in global warming, during which we can take further measures to improve energy efficiency and sustainability, therby mitigating climate change,” read the project proposal of Lucero, Geraldine Cercado and Ferdinand Zapata. They said painting roofs white is a “sustainable and cost-effective strategy against global warming.”
“We have embraced the idea that buildings can be designed or modified in such a way to directly combat global warming.” White roofs they pointed reflect up to 80 percent of sunlight, while dark-colored-roofs reflect only 10 to 20 percent. They also cited studies that show that on a global scale, if roofs in all urban areas are painted white, global temperature would drop by 0.6 Celsius.
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