Going Green
Austria sets green roof standard for climate adaptation
The new standard gives planners and builders an updated technical basis for carrying out measures already identified by Austrian authorities as relevant to heat resilience, rainwater retention and urban biodiversity. Austria has adopted a new national construction standard for green roofs and related outdoor building surfaces, giving climate-adaptive building greening a ...
Climate has shaped roof design for more than 1,000 years
By Emma Peterson. By examining centuries-old buildings and historical climate records, researchers found evidence that roof geometry evolved alongside changing snowfall conditions. As weather events continue to grow in extremity, there’s a lot of discussion going on about how we can build structures stronger so that they can withstand the ...
Sustainable buildings reshape Mexico’s construction sector
By Jesse Sanchez. Energy efficiency, environmental certification and high-performance design are helping projects in Mexico reduce their environmental impact. Mexico’s construction sector is increasingly turning to sustainable design as developers respond to climate change, resource constraints and the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In 2025, sustainable buildings demonstrated how ...
Turning roof tear-off waste into opportunity
By Jesse Sanchez. Rooftop recycling can help contractors reduce landfill waste, manage disposal costs and create additional value from materials removed during commercial roof replacements. Every commercial roof replacement generates waste, but not every material removed from a roof has to end up in a landfill. With support from Versico ...
Turning concrete into community spaces
By Emma Peterson. How rooftop gardens are transforming Shēnzhèn’s rooftops into meaningful and sustainable public spaces. Just north of Hong Kong along the coast of the South China Sea sits a city called 深圳 (Shēnzhèn). A part of the 广东 (Guǎngdōng) province, for much of modern history, Shēnzhèn has been a small ...
Contractors and distributors drive shingle recycling forward
By The Coffee Shops®. Industry leaders will gather in Raleigh to discuss practical solutions for recovering roofing waste and expanding asphalt shingle recycling. Roofing contractors and distributors are on the front line of shingle recovery, making their perspectives critical to the future of recycling. On October 14, the Construction & ...
From Læsø to Jiāodōng : The global legacy of seaweed roofing
By Emma Peterson. With examples still standing after hundreds of years, seaweed-roofed structures showcase remarkable durability, natural insulation and environmental benefits. Historically, humans have built homes out of the materials around them, often using grasses and other fibers as a roofing material. In an article for the Journal of Asian ...
Rooftop solar innovation powers China's clean energy shift
On the rooftops of Shuangjing Village in the city of Xuzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, rows of gleaming solar panels shimmer under the summer sun, resembling a vast azure sea from a distance. The installation is part of a village-wide distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation initiative led by the State ...
Solar & Storage Live 2025 Awards honour SpeedFlash
By The Coffee Shops®. This win highlights the Genius Roof Solutions’ teams innovative SpeedFlash product and how it supports faster, safer and more sustainable solar installations. Genius Roof Solutions was founded by a roofer with a simple goal; to use “traditional roofing principles and a practical understanding of how roofs ...
Make sustainability part of the sales conversation
By Jesse Sanchez. Contractors can strengthen conversations about smog-reducing roofing systems by connecting sustainability to the priorities that matter most to customers. Sustainability continues to be a cornerstone of the roofing conversation as homeowners and building owners ask different questions about the products they choose. For contractors, solutions from 3M ...
