NYC Sweetens Green Roof Incentive After Decade of Disappointment

Putting “green roofs” on New York City office and apartment buildings provides more than oases in the concrete jungle. It can improve air quality, cool temperatures, and cut down flooding from storms that can cause billions of dollars in damages.

The city wants more of these roofs, and hopes a sweetened tax incentive will increase the disappointing number that have been installed since the credit was created nearly 16 years ago.

There were at least 730 green roofs as of 2016, representing 60 acres of the 40,000 acres of rooftop space available—barely a blip among the city’s nearly 1 million ...