Industrial-Sized Rooftop Farm Planned for Berlin

Via Spiegel Online, an interesting article about an industrial-sized rooftop farm planned for Berlin: It is hardly a logical spot for a farm, but three Berliners have earmarked a massive former factory roof for an unusual urban agriculture venture. The sustainable set-up will produce both vegetables and fish for local residents and could be a model […]

Read more »




An Urban Rooftop Revolution?

Via Green Prophet, an interesting article on what Beirut could look like if a rooftop revolution took hold and scaled outward – a solution, perhaps, to many other high density urban centers as well.     Beirut is almost completely bereft of public green spaces. Satellite images show expanses of grey apartment and office blocks […]

Read more »


Chinese Roofspace

Via Blogfish, an interesting photo of crops growing on the roof of the main parking garage at Beijing Airport:

Read more »




Electricity’s Future: Transformed By Solar Panels On Residential and Commercial Roofs

Via Yale’s e360 blog, an interesting interview with David Crane, president and CEO of NRG Energy who believes the U.S. electricity-generating market is on the verge of a profound transformation, not unlike the era two decades ago when the antiquated world of land-line telephones and “Ma Bell” companies was about to give way to cell […]

Read more »


Rainwater Harvesting: Saving For A Rainy Day

Via Spouting Off, an interesting article on the Los Angeles County’s recently released rainwater harvesting guidelines: L.A. County’s Department of Public Health has just released rainwater harvesting guidelines that  help transform the region’s management of stormwater runoff.  The guidelines apply to rainwater harvesting projects, including rain barrels and cisterns, and they significantly shift the approach […]

Read more »




Painting Your Roof White Doesn’t Work

Via Fast Company, a report that debunks the idea of “cool roofs”: Painting roofs white has been–like changing lightbulbs–one of the well-cited easy ways out of climate change. By reflecting more light and heat back to the atmosphere, a white roof should act like a natural anti-warming device, while also reducing your energy costs by […]

Read more »



About This Blog And Its Author
As potential uses for building and parking lot roofspace continue to grow, unique opportunities to understand and profit from this trend will emerge. Roof Options is committed to tracking the evolving uses of roof estate – spanning solar power, rainwater harvesting, wind power, gardens & farms, “cooling” sites, advertising, apiculture, and telecom transmission platforms – to help unlock the nascent, complex, and expanding roofspace asset class.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy. Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation. He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”