b'Climate Resilience A New Climate-Resilience Tool for the Commercial Roofing Community By Bas A. Baskaran, PhD, P. Eng., and Flonja Shyti, MAScThisarticleoriginallyappearednew standard that can help theCanadawillcontinuetogrowWithclimatechangecomestos of a roof failure due to Hur-in IIBEC Interface in the Novem- roofing industry prepare for andwarmerunderboththelowestahigherdemandonCanadianricane Michael in 2018. On that ber/December2021issueandismitigate those effects. Althoughand highest greenhouse gas emis- roofs due to the greater and moreroof,themembranepeeledand reprintedwithpermissionfromthethis article is focused on Canada,sionscenarios.InCanada,thefrequentimpactofweatherele- the fasteners pulled through the InternationalInstituteofBuildinga similar approach could be fol- temperatureincreasewasveryments such as extreme wind, in- cover board, exposing the system Enclosure Consultants. lowed for other countries as well,gradualuntilthe19thcentury,tense rain and high temperatures.to water infiltration.The ICLR survey 3also empha-T hispaperfocusesontheprovidedtheyhaveprojectedfollowedbyacontinuingrapidA survey by the Institute of Cata- sized the need to collect and dis-effectsofclimatechangeclimaticdataforlocaleswithinincrease(Figure1). 2 Thishigh- strophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) 3 seminate future climate data and onCanadianlow-slopetheir borders. lightsthatunderboththebestidentified roofs as the element ofto find solutions to mitigate the membraneroofsandprovidesClimate change is not a myth,and worst scenarios, the climatethe building enclosure most likelyeffects of climate change on roof anoverviewofCSAA123.26anditisoneofthetoppriori- ischanging,andtheintensityto be damaged in severe weather.systems.Practicalclimatedata PerformanceRequirementsfortiesfortheCanadiangovern- and frequency of extreme weath- An example of such roof failuresand information are needed to be Climate Resilience of Low Slopement. Environment and Climateer will be constant in the futurefrom severe weather is presentedable to adapt roofs to future cli-Membrane Roofing Systems, 1aChangeCanadapredictsthatof Canada. in Figure 2, 4which features pho- matechangeconditions.Failure to do so can lead to very costly damages,asillustratedbyre-cent insured losses from extreme weather events (Figure 3). 5Practicalsolutionsareneces-sary to aid in the mitigation and preparationoftheCanadian constructioncommunitytode-sign, build and maintain climate-resilientroofs.Suchsolutions did not exist until the National ResearchCouncilofCanada (NRCC) undertook the Climate ResilientBuildingsandCore PublicInfrastructure(CRBCPI) 6projecttodevelopresearchand developmenttoolstoadaptto Figure 1: Effect of greenhouse gas emissions on the annual temperature change in Canada.climatechangeinCanada.Un-Figure courtesy of Reference 2. dertheCRBCPIumbrella,the SpecialInterestGroupforDy-namic Evaluation of Roofing Sys-tems (SIGDERS) consulted with members of the North American (NA)roofingcommunityand developed a framework for com-mercialroofclimateresilience, with the pledge, As a key player intheNAroofingcommunity, we are committed to improve the resilience of roof assemblies. We invest in cost-effective mitigation techniques, durable roofing com-ponents and facilitate quality in-stallations to improve the current status of practice. 7This project led to CSA A123.26, 1which was developed by the CSA Group as Figure 2: Roof and rooftop unit failure during Hurricane Michael in 2018. Note: 1 ft. = 0.3048 m. Photos courtesy of RICOWI 2018. a National Standard of Canada.18ONTARIO ROOFING NEWSISSUE 4 2021/22 THE ONLY SOURCE FOR PROFESSIONAL ICI ROOFING CONTRACTORS IN ONTARIO ORN'