Berkeley Lab

Publications

Dr. Rosenfeld’s full publications record, current as of 6/2/2014. (PDF, 7.5 MB)

On White, Green, and Black Roofs:

Sproul J, Wan MP, Mandel BH, and Rosenfeld AH. 2014. Economic comparison of white, green, and black flat roofs in the United States. Energy and Buildings 71:20-27. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.11.058

With the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) Project:

See the BEST website for recent publications.

On Global Cooling:

Akbari H, Menon S, and Rosenfeld AH. 2009. Global cooling: increasing world-wide urban albedos to offset CO2. Climatic Change 94:275-286. doi:10.1007/s10584-008-9515-9 (PDF, 323 KB)

Akbari H and Rosenfeld AH. 2008. White roofs cool the world, directly offset CO2 and delay global warming.Heat Island Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Research Highlight. (PDF, 180 KB)

Akbari H, Menon S, and Rosenfeld AH. 2008. Equivalent CO2 avoided by reflective roofs and pavements in California. A memo to Dr. Bart Croes (California Air Resources Board).(PDF, 172 KB)

On Urban Heat Islands:

Rosenfeld AH, Romm JJ, Akbari H, and Lloyd AC. 1997 Painting the town white—and green. MIT’s Technology Review 100:52-59. (PDF, 596 KB)

Rosenfeld AH, Romm JJ, Akbari H, Pomerantz M, and Taha H. 1996. Policies to reduce heat islands: Magnitudes of benefits and incentives to achieve them. ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings 9:177-186.

On Cool Communities:

Rosenfeld AH, Akbari H, Romm JJ, and Pomerantz M. 1998. Cool communities: strategies for heat island mitigation and smog reduction. Energy and Buildings 28:51-62. doi:10.1016/S0378-7788(97)00063-7. (PDF, 1.2 MB)

On Expressing Savings or Usage of Energy/CO2 in More Familiar Equivalents:

Rosenfeld AH and Kumar S. 2008. Tables to convert energy or CO2 (saved or used) to familiar equivalents — cars, homes, or power plants. California Energy Commission report. (PDF, 188 KB)

Noteworthy Publications by Others

Two recent papers from Concordia University discuss the cooling of urban heat islands induced by increasing urban albedo, and include the relevant citations in this literature. The papers confirm that white roofs and lighter-colored pavements effectively mitigate summer discomfort and offset the warming from greenhouse gas emissions.

Akbari H, Matthews HD, and Seto D (2012) The long-term effect of increasing the albedo of urban areas.Environmental Research Letters 7(2):024004. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/7/2/024004

Akbari H and Matthews HD (2012) Global cooling updates: Reflective roofs and pavements. Energy and Buildings 55:2-6. doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2012.02.055

Oleson KW, Bonan GB, and Feddema J. 2010. Effects of white roofs on urban temperature in a global climate model. Geophysical Research Letters 37:L03701. doi:10.1029/2009GL042194

VanCuren R et al. 2010. Quantification of climate benefits of California’s “cool roof” regulations. California Air Resources Board, draft note, 2010-04-15, revision 4. (PDF, 308 KB)

Cool Communities Guidebook:

Akbari H. 1992. Cooling our Communities: A Guidebook on Tree Planting and Light-Colored Surfacing.Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA. LBL-31587.

Cool Roofs and Pavements Toolkit:

The Global Cool Cities Alliance’s Cool Roofs and Pavements Toolkit.

Cool Roof Legislation:

New York City’s Local Law 21 (signed into law 4/29/2011) (PDF, 37 KB)

Letter to California Air Resources Board:

Equivalent CO2 Avoided by Cool Roofs and Pavements in California (2008) (PDF, 172 KB)