What does your community do to stay cool? (As in lowering the temperature)

[michaelskis]

In our basic geography classes, we learned about island heat models and urban heat models. Tons of dark surfaces heat absorb heat during the day causing changes in weather patterns, and are slower to cool off at night.

But what does your community do to keep the temperature down? Do you require green roofs, large percentage of plant material on your site plans, tree canopies over streets, shade trees in parking lots? Or do you require something more?

What standards and regulations do you have in place and how much of a difference does it make?

 

[mercdude]

We jump into the river and/or hide indoors and run the air conditioner like mad. Oh, were you asking about what sustainable things we require to reduce heat island effect? From what I can tell, impervious surfaces and tree cover, generally.