Since 2015, Cool Roof France offers concrete, affordable and sustainable solutions to cool buildings and therefore cities, in a low-tech and social justice logic. The company’s ambition is to be a major player in the Ecological Transition with their passive and disruptive cool roofing solutions. The goal? To lower the temperature of buildings and cities, to improve the thermal comfort of citizens, to reduce the electricity bill of air-conditioned buildings… and to offer real solutions with a positive impact on the environment.
Interview with Julien Martin-Cocher, Deputy CEO of Cool Roof France.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Julien Martin-Cocher: CoolRoof system is a roof coating that allows to cool down indoor ambient temperature within buildings and avoid overheating caused by solar radiation, by blocking it before it enters the building.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
JMC: It’s an innovative solution for which formulas are owned internally, meaning no buying/selling nor import/export process. This is the only solution validated by the French government and getting stamped by COFRAC labs that are the only one validated by French government. Finally, this is the only solution benefiting from a LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) process with a specific Environment Technical Datasheet registering the solution into National Database for solutions and products for decarbonation in France… gain of 36kg CO2 per painted square meter. By reflecting 90% of the sun’s rays to be reflected, CoolRoof solution limits the heating within a building and if offering multiple advantages:
- Employee/client comfort with temperatures lowered from -7°C (average)
- Reduction of A/C consumption (and related invoices) by 20% to 50%
- Improved efficiency of equipment located on/around roofs
- Extension of roof life span and waterproofing 8-10 years
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
[JMC: We have been focusing for now 8 years onto a limited but structured portfolio with 3 types of products 1/ CoolRoof (roofs), 2/ CoolWall (facades) and 3/ CoolGlass (skydomes, vaults or equivalent). Those products ensuring a full and consistent treatment for envelop of a building against overheating.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
JMC: Being the pioneer on the French market with company registered in 2015 and first site painted the same year, Cool Roof France has been evolving from start-up to scale-up mode, with a long-term strategy, trying to lead the market on technical, norms, etc. Technology allows to protect buildings from overheating in an efficient and sustainable way and thus increases the comfort of their users while limiting use of A/C (and consequently reducing greenhouse gas emissions). From day 1, the company keeps defending the same DNA to provide real answers to climate change and be a key player within Ecological Transition.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
JMC: With extreme temperature peaks and energy prices going up, people, companies and politics tend to try to find alternatives to fight. This solution is based on an old concept seen for millennials within Arabic regions, Cyclades, India, etc. Within our own labs, teams have been recreating from scratch a Low-Tech solution by adding a lot of High-Tech into it. Trend is developing fast within France & EU but we need to be careful as US market used to grow fast with no real structure that prevent it from being stable. Any white painting looking like the same, US market quickly suffered a decade ago from greenwashing with products not performing nor having any added value. Cool Roof France therefore wants to avoid such evolution and keeps optimizing its products within its own labs by R&D dedicated team (the only one in France having such) and bringing pedagogy to people and follow-up to customers to make the difference. Keep in mind that only for France, potential market for private buildings represents a potential of 950M millions square meters onto which CoolRoof by Cool Roof France gain of 36kg CO2 per painted square meter will apply. Keep also in mind that France, with energy mix based on Nuclear, is considering 42kg CO2 per kWh for production. Germany is 550kg CO2. This makes the solution even more interesting & clean into rest of Europe.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
JMC: We ensure the design of innovative reflective coatings, as well as their application thru internal team or by a specific network of applicators. We are offering eco designed, bio-based and non-polluting product with a lifetime validated over 20 years and a ROI between 2-5 years on A/C buildings. As an example, our R&D work has enabled to design a product for which we have been able to reduce the quantity of pigments and integrate a renewable source of calcium carbonate, oyster shell, while maintaining a high reflective performance with extralong duration.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2023?
JMC: Cool Roof France’s ambition is to continue to grow, in a reasonable and reasoned manner, by maintaining a unique Breton business model and by acting in a transparent, fair and socially responsible way. Cool Roof France wants to become a reference capable of ensuring the best performance in the fight against global warming. Business is growing fast and doubling each and every year revenue-wise with already half a million square meters painted throughout France, EU & Africa.
