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The White Roof Campaign, “One Degree Less,” founded in 2009 by Thassanee Wanick, President of the Green Building Council of Brazil (GBC), to help combat global warming enters a new phase with the support of public figures, in fashion, TV, music and sports.

While waiting for the approval of an international agreement against climatic change, the GBC invites Brazilians to participate in the campaign, which supports the use of white roof buildings and pavement, to reduce the planet’s temperature by one degree, helping to combat global warming.

The campaign depends on support from US Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu. São Paulo’s Secretary of Housing and President of CDHU, Lair Krähenbühl, who signed a partnership to paint the roofs of a group of houses in Ilhabela, which already offers sustainable solutions such as solar heaters and the use of certified wood.

So far, the campaign has led to the painting of 450 thousand square meters, which is equivalent to taking 45,000 cars off the road or 45,000 tons of CO2 out of the air. “We want everyone to think about global warming and understand that it is necessary to act now,” Thassanee says. “Scientists have talked about the warming of the South Atlantic Ocean for over a decade, but only now are we witnessing tragedies such as those that occurred recently in Rio de Janeiro. If we want to leave a better world for our children, this is the moment to do something.”

The efficiency of the GBC Brazil campaign is supported by the research of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. According to the North American laboratory, the white roofs helped diminish the impact of the solar rays. “We estimate that for each 100m2 of roofs painted white, we are compensating 10 tons of CO2 emissions per year”, explains Thassanee.

According to GBC Brazil, these are the advantages of white roofs:

• less absorption of heat in buildings and houses - decrease in the emission of CO2
• help reflect solar rays back to space
• easy to apply and maintain (there is paint and materials which don’t need cleaning and avoid having to paint the surfaces again for many years)
• immediate results and with a high impact
• reduces costs of air conditioning and ventilators - efficient way to combat global warming