German Innovation for High-Performance Buildings (Part II)
As I noted in my article in the April issue of EDC, Germany is one of the world’s top three leaders in innovation, yet German advances for high-performance buildings have not readily made it to the U.S. This, in large part, can be attributed to policies. German policy at every level of government also supports the implementation of these innovations. German standards, based on European energy law, are regularly updated to reflect advancing technology. Also, building codes are informed by a national goal for per-person energy use far lower than U.S. consumption patterns. Some of Germany’s leading policy examples are cited here, showing how the public and private sectors can work together to create attractive, sustainable, livable environments through regulation, incentives and planning.
While we also have green roofs in the U.S., German incentives and regulations have made vegetated roofs abundant throughout the country. In fact, Germany leads the world, which is the result of federal funding to reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption and the Federal Nature Protection Act requiring green-space offsets. Now some 10 percent of all German roofs are green, and about three-quarters of these have extensive systems that are thinner, lighter and have less soil than intensive systems. These roofs, introduced 50 years ago, became increasingly common in the ‘80s and are now the subject of active research.