Sustainable cool roof solution in Chennai

IAS officer Supriya Sahu came up with the simple and effective idea of reducing temperatures on roof and making homes livable gain as Chennai homes were burning into ovens. She cooled Chennai by 8° C using paint.

As extreme heat intensified across Chennai, as the heat trapped on the roof it made homes turned into ovens which made living of the people extremely difficult, rooms stayed extremely hot even after sunset. Because of this electricity bills kept rising for many low- and middle-class income and vulnerable communities and escaping this heat simply wasn't possible because of earnings and daily works.

That's when IAS Supriya Sahu began searching for a solution to save people from this heat trap. her answers were hidden on the roofs which was just above people's head. Under Tamil Nadu urban heat mitigation project her team came up with idea and launched cool roof initiative.

Simple, affordable and scalable, roofs were coated with solar-reflective white paint

(It is a type of paint designed to reduce heat absorption and improve energy efficiency in buildings. It is made with special pigments that reflect sunlight, particularly the infrared (IR) part of the spectrum, which carries most of the heat. This paint works based on two principles: Solar reflectance and thermal emittance.) that reflects sunlight instead of trapping heat.

the project was simple of getting thousands of rooftops painted, but there were questions in residents mind why to paint the roof but after many persuasion she succeeded in her work and trained local workers regarding this. Homes across heat vulnerable areas were painted and entire neighborhood joined and soon the results became visible, many houses' temperatures dropped by 5-8° C during peak summer. Rooms that once felt suffocated finally felt livable again for all.

In 2025 IAS Supriya Sahu was Awarded with Champions of the Earth Award by the United Nations Environment Program.

SOURCE: THEBETTERINDIA

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