Case study of
#00007 Convert dark roofs and pavement to reflective, high-albedo surfaces
Los Angeles, California, USA
#00004
Implementer
City of Los Angeles
Location
Description
Los Angeles, where average temperatures run nearly six degrees hotter than surrounding areas, adopted cool-surface measures alongside a measurable temperature target. Its Sustainable City pLAn set a goal to reduce the local urban-rural temperature differential by at least 1.7°F by 2025 and 3°F by 2035. The city has applied heat-reflective coatings to streets and adopted requirements for buildings to include cool roofs and low-impact development in site design. The case is notable for pairing the physical intervention with an explicit, accountable numeric target rather than treating cool surfaces as a one-off gesture.
Metrics
2Lessons learned
- Attaching a specific numeric temperature target with deadlines turns a cool-surface program into something that can be tracked and held accountable.
- Cool roofs scale efficiently when written into building requirements rather than left voluntary.
- An urban-rural differential of ~6°F shows the heat-island gap is large enough that even multi-degree reduction targets leave substantial residual heat.
Documented May 22, 2026