The Atlanta chapter of Cool Communities led the grass roots effort to get the "Georgia White Roof Amendment" enacted. In complying with a 1994 congressional mandate that each state adopt the ASHRAE 90.1 Energy Efficiency Standards (before the white roofing addition) for their local and state energy efficiency building code requirements, the state of Georgia went one step further and enacted what has come to be known as the Georgia White Roof Amendment. This regulation requires the use of additional insulation for roofing systems whose surfaces do not have test values of 75 percent or more for both solar reflectance and emissivity. According to Pat Downey, CSI, RRC, and president of Merik Inc., a Roswell, GA-based roof consulting company, who led the Cool Communities effort, this regulation will serve as a model for changes in the building codes of other southern states because it addresses both energy conservation and environmental concerns.

Max Akridge, a professor Georgia Tech's College of Architecture was also involved in the development of the Georgia White roof Amendment. "The roofs of commercial buildings are a major concern because the roof area of a large, one story commercial building may greatly exceed that building's wall area. Also, in the peak air conditioning months of summer, the sun is high in the sky and has a greater heating effect on a commercial building's low slope roof than on its vertical exterior walls. If a roof coating with a high reflectivity is used on a commercial building, then the amount of insulation required for that building can be reduced. From a reflectivity standpoint, the [Georgia] code was written for the worst case, where the insulation requirement was set for a dark colored, low reflectivity roof. The U-value for roof assemblies can be higher for roofs with high reflectivity, and lower for roofs with low reflectivity. U-values and insulating R-values are reciprocals of each other. Therefore a more reflective roof surface can have a higher U-value and a lower R-value, requiring less actual insulation to meet a given requirement for saving cooling energy. Highly reflective roofs do not have lower conductance. They conduct less because they do not get as hot," Akridge explains.