Hamburg launches a large project for greener buildings

With a rainwater system, the sewage network in the area will be eased

Hamburg will implement its largest project so far for greening buildings on the roof of a research campus. The Hamburg office for the environment is funding the project with a total of 410,000 euros and the project will be completed in 2026.

DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) will green around 4600 square metres of the facade and flat roof area will be planted with around 25,000 grasses, perennials and climbing trees.

The Hamburg environmental authority is making 410,000 euros available for this

Senator for Science Katharina Fegebank shared her excitement about the project: “It is our central social task to fight climate change and to cushion already recognizable consequences as well as possible. This also includes modern and sustainable urban development - with the greening of the DESY outer facade as an innovative example."

The project is part of the “Green DESY” programme, with which the research centre contributes to modern and environmentally friendly urban development. The main aspect is efficient rainwater management in order to relieve the urban sewer network in the long term - in the sense of the rain infrastructure adjustment process.

This means: In the future, rainwater will no longer be discharged into the sewage system on the DESY campus, but will instead evaporate on-site or be collected, stored and, for example, used for irrigation of the green facade.

In Hamburg, 1.68 million m² of roof area are already greened, which is around 5% of the flat sloping roof areas. The roof area of ​​the city covers 70 million m², which corresponds to about a tenth of the Hamburg city surface. Of this roof area, more than 50 percent are flat or flat inclined (roof inclination 0-20 °) and could potentially be greened.

The environmental office promotes the greening of roofs and facades with up to 40 percent of the investment amount. A one-time grant of a maximum of 100,000 euros can be paid out for each greening measure.