Help Improve Your Air Quality with Eco-friendly Roofing

When you want the best for your home, it’s not only about making it look beautiful. It’s also key to create a better environment for you or your family. And, while our mission is to improve indoor air quality, we’re excited to share a game-changing 3M innovation that helps reduce air pollution overall.

In the roofing industry, a quality material with durability and longevity is a given. Add in shingles with 3M™ Smog-reducing Granules, and you can transform your roof into a smog-fighting surface.

Small changes with big impact

One house with this smog-reducing technology can make a huge difference. "It has the capacity to do the work of two to three trees,” says Carrie Niezgocki, marketing supervisor in the Industrial Mineral Products division at 3M. Can you imagine the impact if entire communities made this choice?

Inspired by the power of trees, the granules are designed with a photocatalytic coating and can be seamlessly integrated into roofing shingles to help remove smog pollution from the air around you. Solar rays activate these granules to transform smog into water-soluble ions that wash away with rainwater over time.

Niezgocki says if you want to incorporate more eco-friendly changes into your home but can’t necessarily plant more trees in your backyard or install solar panels, this is a great option. She adds that shingles with the granules don’t stand out and are not priced much higher than shingles without them, so there aren’t significant sacrifices being made for design or cost.

Trusted performance with visual appeal

According to Lara Ughetta, application engineer specialist in the Industrial Mineral Products division at 3M, the granules were designed to look inconspicuous and blend in with the shingle. Homeowners still have the same options for design and color when selecting their future roof.

"[The granules] just add different ingredients to the ceramic coating, so the basic construct is all the same," says Ughetta. “You're adding technology to the material you're already using on your roof.”

Fit for your home, no matter its location

Smog is often associated with large cities and urban areas, such as Los Angeles or New York City. However, according to Niezgocki, “it’s not always a big city problem. Smog gases are generated anywhere cars are driven or fuel is burned.”

If you live in a rural community with less smog, choosing shingles with these granules is an easy step to reduce your smog footprint, but more importantly contribute to something bigger.

"About 5 million homes a year are re-roofed—think of what the transformation could be,” Niezgocki says. “What could that be in terms of planting trees or reductions in emissions? Those are things we get excited about."