Cooling the City
Countering the urban heat island effect with plants and better design
EXAMPLE IDEAS
Street trees provide shade and cool the city through evaporative cooling
Depaving to remove excess heat-trapping surfaces in our cities
Lighter colored roofs can reflect the sun’s heat instead of absorb it
Roofs with a layer of soil and plants (“Green Roofs”) insulate the building, slow stormwater runoff, and provide some evaporative cooling
Ground-source heat pumps use the stable temperatures underneath the earth to cool buildings instead of taking heat from indoors and putting it into the outside air