MIT Sustainable Roof Study

The study and planning tool allows MIT to develop campus strategies and prioritize improvements that lower greenhouse gas emissions, maximize energy savings, improve storm water management, increase biodiversity, reduce the urban heat island effect, increase energy production, and provide more educational/research opportunities.

Consistent with MIT’s Plan for Action on Climate Change, Arrowstreet developed a tool that evaluates options for making MIT’s campus buildings more sustainable. The project team included Arrowstreet, Arup, Simpson Gumpertz & Hager (SGH), and PM+C.

Arrowstreet’s team worked closely with the university to identify goals for creating sustainable roofs on campus. Goals included demonstrating MIT’s commitment to sustainability, educating the Institute and the public about the benefits of renewable energy generation, utilizing roofs to generate electricity, providing tools to campus planning programs, responding to the city’s efforts to mitigate flooding and temperature rise, and providing education and research opportunities to the MIT community.

We analyzed 20 buildings and incorporated the data into a database, to create the Roof Sustainability Planner Tool. The tool includes a lifecycle cost analysis and gives a snapshot of cost and energy reduction. It also provides data for potential cost savings by roof type. The tool output provides MIT with the information to assist in campus planning, capital improvement recommendations, and sustainability decisions. The tool is used by MIT Campus Construction, Maintenance and Utilities, Campus Planning and Office of Sustainability and has become part of decision making for the annual roof replacement program.