More commercial developers and owners of commercial buildings are installing "cool" roofs to increase the life of the roof and potentially lower operating costs.

Conventional flat roofs are black, and black materials absorb more heat, leading to a warmer building. A cool roof is lighter in color and made of materials that tend to reflect light and heat. The result is a cooler building, which cuts air-conditioning costs in the summer. In fact, on a hot day, a black roof can be 70 degrees hotter than the air temperature, compared with only 20 degrees hotter for a cool roof.

In the past, some in northern climes have resisted cool roofs because they were thought to increase heating costs in the winter. Now a recent study of cool and conventional roofs by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that in virtually the entire country, the summer air-conditioning savings of cool roofs are greater than the increased heating cost in the winter.

There are other benefits of cool roofs that make them attractive, particularly for commercial structures:

• Cool roofs tend to last longer because they suffer less thermal stress than conventional roofs do.

• Cool roofs reduce the urban heat island, because the building structure is cooler. The heat island effect is one of the causes of the formation of smog and greenhouse gases.

• A cool roof helps a building qualify as environmentally friendly by the U.S. Green Building Council, which is of interest to a growing number of tenants.

Cool roofs typically cost the same or only slightly more than conventional roofs to install.

-- Thomas O. Gray, AIA,
DRS Architects,
thomas_gray@drsarchitects.com

More and more contracts between businesses have a clause that states that if there is a disagreement, the parties will take their dispute to arbitration instead of taking it to court.

The accepted wisdom is that arbitration takes less time to complete. But in reality, arbitration can drag out for months.

Another myth about arbitration is that it is always less expensive than going to court. The truth of the matter is that sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. In addition to their attorneys, the parties in dispute have to pay the entity managing the arbitration, e.g., the American Arbitration Association, the arbitrator(s), the court reporter and often rental on the place in which the arbitration sessions are held. These fees add up quickly.

The final reason to consider avoiding arbitration is that when you agree to arbitrate, you give up a number of legal rights, including the right to appeal and the right to take discovery and depositions. The loss of these rights can have a negative impact on your case.

Before signing a contract that contains an arbitration clause or agreeing to arbitrate a dispute, you should carefully analyze the situation. You may find that your business is better off just keeping its right to go to court.

-- Douglas Hottle,
Meyer Unkovic & Scott,
dmh@muslaw.com