Archive for June, 2012

Coming Soon: Commercial Scale Rooftop Produce

Via SmartPlanet, an article on commercial scale rooftop production: Lufa Farms has broken even on its operations in chilly Montreal, over 50 degrees of latitude north of the Equator. The next time you’re in Montreal or New York, the lettuce in your Caesar salad might come from the building across the way. Demand for locally […]

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New York City Wants Massive Rooftop Farm to Top Bronx Distribution Center

Via A/N blog, a report on a plan to establish a massive rooftop farm in New York City: One of the biggest rooftop farms in the world may land in the Bronx. (Montage by AN) The New York City Economic Development Corporation sent out an RFP for a forward thinking urban farmer to run a […]

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How Painting Roofs White Can Help ‘Turn Off The World For A Year’

Via ThinkProgress, a look at the effect of painting roofs white: I’m drawn to “boring” ways to change energy use: things like daylighting, reducing packaging, and making company supply-chains more efficient. Without these methods to help reduce our energy demand, the “exciting” solutions like renewable energy are less valuable. And what could be more boring […]

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New York’s Roofscape Gets Climate Makeover

Via Mother Jones, a series of short videos tracking the evolution of NYC’s billion-square-foot roofscape in the face of climate change: Most visitors to New York City crane their necks for a view of the city’s famous skyline, but locals know better: To get the best views, you have to go up. Here’s your chance […]

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About This Blog And Its Author
As potential uses for building and parking lot roofspace continue to grow, unique opportunities to understand and profit from this trend will emerge. Roof Options is committed to tracking the evolving uses of roof estate – spanning solar power, rainwater harvesting, wind power, gardens & farms, “cooling” sites, advertising, apiculture, and telecom transmission platforms – to help unlock the nascent, complex, and expanding roofspace asset class.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy. Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation. He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”