This month marks the fifth anniversary of the Sustainable Roofing column in Roofing Contractor. Over the past five years, I’ve talked about many different aspects of sustainability, emphasizing both the opportunities and the challenges for our industry. Changes related to sustainability have been substantial over the past decade. In less than ten years, we’ve witnessed the introduction of many new products and technologies — including new energy-efficient roof membranes, low-VOC adhesives, roof-integrated solar panels, and much more. And each of these new innovations has increased the demands placed on the skills roofing professionals possess and the ways we conduct our business. So given the challenges these new products have created, it may be worthwhile to review the benefits they have generated over the past ten years.
In less than a decade, the energy efficiency of a new commercial roof has improved by more than 100 percent. For a typical commercial roof with insulation above the deck, minimum code thermal values have increased from R-10 in the 2006 International Energy Code up to R-25 or greater in the 2015 version of the code. In addition to this significant increase in R-value, the energy efficiency of commercial roofs has been further advanced by new code requirements for cool roofs and air barriers.