3M Gives Us the Shingle Shakedown on Their Smog-reducing Roofing Granules

By Cass Jacoby, RCS Reporter. 

Learn how 3M’s smog-reducing granules are helping better the environment in this podcast. 

Smog-reducing granules with the smog-reducing power of two to three trees might sound like it works via magic. How else could your roof simply improve air quality? In this podcast, 3M’s Marketing Manager Carrie Niezgocki and Application Engineer Lara Ughetta teach us how this innovation works without so much as a wave from a magic wand. Listen to learn about free radicals, ions and how 3M smog-reducing roofing granules use the power of the sun to improve air quality. 

This innovation works in much the same way that trees filter air by trapping them in their leaves and bark. Roofs with these shingles transform smog gases into a form of nitrogen that can be used by plants. This means a typical size roof with smog-reducing granules has the smog-fighting power of two to three trees. 

“In simple terms, 3M created a granule with their special coating that reacts to the sun, and that transforms smog particles into a solid that's deposited on the roof and simply washes away,” says Carrie. “So you're taking the smog gases that are harmful at the parts per billion level and transforming them into a salt that washes away and so your roof becomes a smog-reducing surface.” 

“Our smog-reducing granules are made very similarly to a standard colored roofing granule, except that they include photocatalytic technology that gets activated when the granules are exposed to ultraviolet light on the rooftop,” Lara adds. 

“The really cool thing with this technology is that the catalyst doesn't ever get consumed in the reaction itself, it just facilitates those reactions that happen around it,” Lara states. “So, these granules continually keep causing these reactions whenever the sunlight or the UV light is hitting that roof surface.” This means that you won’t have to replace a roof any earlier than you would with traditional roofing shingles. 

In a market where more and more homeowners are shown to have a renewed interest in technologies that create more eco-friendly or sustainable roofing solutions, 3Ms smog-reducing granules are a timely and innovative invention. 

“When you think of two to three trees it may seem like we're not doing enough, but when you think of the collective impact...there's so much more potential to make a bigger impact, and that's what really gets us excited,” says Lara. 

You can learn more about 3M’s smog-reducing shingles and how they lead to better business and better air by listening to the entire “What’s Next at 3M” podcast. 

Learn more about 3M in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.engage.3m.com/homereno.