Internship Hans Krüse in Stuttgart, November 2010

Hans Krüse from City Development, department Environment and Sustainability,  went on a five day internship to Stuttgart in November 2010.  His research topic was the use of green roofs in Stuttgart to make the city climate proof.

His internship left the following impression on him:
I got the opportunity to visit Stuttgart because of the big amount (1,5 million square  meter) of green roofs that is realized in this city. I hoped to receive information that I could use in Utrecht for writing the green roofs policy plan. I learned that the wider meaning of the building of green roofs in Stuttgart is to make the city climate proof and sustainable: water retention, decrease of the heat island effect and air pollution are the main arguments for the application of green roofs.
There is an obligation in Stuttgart to apply green roofs on new buildings. A subsidy regulation stimulates to apply green roofs on existing private buildings. The combination of obligatory application of green roofs and a subsidy regulation for existing situations has been very successful. Unfortunately this regulation has been stopped last year.

In Germany green façade systems are as new as in The Netherlands. Not all my questions have been answered. Nevertheless it was a very fruitful visit, because of the fact that my colleague Kjeld Vosjan also visited Stuttgart with his own questions and there was some overlap in our programmes. Therefore we could exchange views.

Hans Krüse, 24 November 2010