Whoever said it's a jungle out there had it all wrong. Modern cities are actually more like a giant, baking hot rock, a mass of flinty, impervious surfaces that radiate and multiply heat like a colossal concrete furnace.

This phenomenon, sometimes called the Urban Heat Island Effect, is well documented: the US Environmental Protection Agency says most American cities are up to 5.6 degrees hotter than the surrounding land cover. Less well documented is the role of green roofs in combating this effect and its associated impacts.

"Green roofs involve using a layer of soil or growing medium on top of a building to grow whatever plants suit the location," Sidonie Carpenter, the president of Green Roofs Australia, says.

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