Grassed roofs & global competition

Japan’s recent experience of exceedingly hot summers has induced much public awareness of the phenomenon called "heat island" or the heat generated by urban centers on account of their green areas being lost as they are replaced by energy-intensive buildings. In many Japanese metropolitan areas, heat buildup has become both an engineering and social problem and the official authorities have had to work with concerned private companies and citizens in coping with this "heat island" challenge.

In April 2001 – skipping April Fools Day so their intent might not be mistaken – authorities of the Tokyo metropolitan government passed an ordinance requiring new mid-and high-rise buildings except skyscrapers to grow grass on their roofs. A month later, the Japanese Diet revised the Urban Green Space Conservation Act to lend further support to the idea. The objectives of these acts focused on improving the energy efficiency and extending the service life of these buildings even as the latter contribute to a more pleasant and more natural look in the midst of urban centers.

Following up the local and national government initiatives, at least one Japanese corporation – the Urban Development Corporation or UDC – is launching a roof-greening project covering three metropolitan areas (Tokyo, Kinki and Chobu) as well as the city of Fukuoka. Excepting skyscrapers, the project will cover all other buildings including residential homes constructed by the UDC. Preliminary tests already indicated that the UDC would probably be able to grow greenery on rooftops thus meeting the objectives set by Japanese local and national authorities in April and May 2001. Nature – the urban environment in particular – as well as human economics and aesthetics will be well served should this project succeed.

If UDC estimates turn out to be correct, the 2.3 hectares of roofs the company will have grassed within the year should show a depreciation of as much as 37 degrees centigrade in the surface heat of the treated concrete roofs. It is alleged that the entire grassed area will have a cooling effect similar to that of 2500 air conditioning units. And the company spokesman, writing about this "Verdure on the Root" project in the January 2002 issue of Look Japan, is in no mood for smug self-congratulation. He notes that the UDC is still trying to improve its green root technology so that not only new buildings but those built much earlier might also be successfully grassed.

The main reason why this narrative has been made is to show what it takes to be competitive in a globalized world. A problem – the "heat island" phenomenon – is identified. A relatively simple but imaginative technology is painstakingly researched and developed by entrepreneurial (non-rent-seeking) companies, carefully piloted and improved across the years and now stands ready for mass application. From the collaboration of these entrepreneurial companies and seriously-concerned government agencies, a possibly lasting solution – not a mere quick fix – gets to be applied to a technical problem with clear social implications. Successfully coping with this specific problem enhances the self-confidence not only of private companies and government agencies but ultimately – and more critically – of the nation as it faces other problems.

A confident, can-do and will-do citizenry works well in a competitive world and earns the latter’s respect in no time at all. Flipinos can learn quite a bit not from the brilliance of its more successful neighbors, but from their seriousness, their persistence and their ability to honestly confront their equally numerous challenges. From the Japanese, the Koreans, the Singaporeans and others who have materially done well, it would be well for Filipinos to carefully observe and rapidly learn.

The alternative for those who refuse to observe and learn from competitive neighbors is to dutifully serve them and diligently earn their currencies. If alien respect is somehow also gamed, most Filipinos in foreign service may treat it as no more than a convenient bonus, something in the nature of a 13th-month or 14th-month pay. After all, not being completely naïve, such Filipinos know that domestics are mostly housed, hardly ever homed.