Climate in 2024: The Year of the Smart Surface

by SSC CEO and FOunder Greg Kats

With every new year comes new resolutions — most of which don’t last through the spring. However, one crucial resolution we can all make that’s achievable is to ask our governments and companies, where we live and work, to shift from surfaces that make us hotter and threaten our health to surfaces that reduce global warming, extreme heat, pollution and flooding.  

If this sounds complicated, it’s not. If you live in a city, or even a suburban area, most of the surfaces around you are dark and impervious. Such watertight surfaces only facilitate flooding and result in mold along with increased asthma, allergies, sick days and missed school days. Dark surfaces like roads, roofs and parking lots absorb the vast majority of sunlight, turning it into unwanted heat. This heat raises the cost of air conditioning and prevents people from spending time outdoors, resulting in increased crime, higher energy bills and less exercise.  

The solution? Smart Surfaces: an integrated strategy that allows cities to more intelligently manage sun and rain with reflective, green and porous urban surfaces, along with trees and solar photovoltaics (PV). Deployed in every city, these surfaces mitigate heat, reduce flood and mold risk, as well as improve health — with the greatest benefits in historically marginalized Black and brown communities.