An innovative new solar-reflecting paint has just made a school’s playground 12 degrees cooler.
Students and volunteers at the SAE School in Atlanta, Georgia are to thank for the upgraded playground for children. Previously, the black asphalt measured about 120 degrees on a warm day, creating an extremely hot environment for young, vulnerable children.
“Asphalt itself essentially acts as a heat sink. Even when the ambient temperature is recorded at 75 to 85 degrees, uncovered black asphalt can be 120 or 130 degrees. So that’s a really meaningful difference,” explains Eliot Wall, general manager of StreetBond for GAF, the company that donated the paint.
What’s more, the new “bluetop” was designed by students at the SAE school themselves and is expected to bring a safer environment to all. In recent years, the SAE school has integrated environmental issues as well as sustainability topics into its curriculum.
