It is finished for the slate, welcome to the grass! Aesthetically pleasing,aeolian, beautiful..., the green roofs also improve the qualities of the building. A lasting and profitable investment... Germans have understood it for a long time!

Tuesday, February 19th.

No appointment is taken for the afternoon because of the lack of internet  and phone connection !

 We finally find a web café with reasonable prices at Esslingen, beautiful city 30km away from Stuttgart.

A phone call to Zinco at 11:30 AM, one of the green roofs worldwide leaders and the appointment is taken for the same day at 4:30 PM !

Karl-Heinz Braun, export manager, is welcoming us in the conference room.

Zinco  has been created in 1957 in Germany with watertightness as main activity.The company started  the green roofs adventure in 1977; It is now its unique activity. 

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Zinco in some figures :

    > 15M€ of turnover  in 2007

    > 90 people and present  throughout the world thanks to a partners network.

    > Growth of 5% per year.

    > 4 shareholders among which one is the majority shareholder.

 Germany the the country having got the most green roofs in the world : 13 Millions m2 ! 

There are two types of green roofs. The extensive one which allows only small herbs and flowers to grow, and the intensive one which even allows the growth of trees, often used on the carpark or shopping centres roofs.

To install an extensive roof on the flat roof of an house, the price will vary from 22 to 28€ the m2, installation included.The maintenance would cost only 2€/ m2 per year maximum.

The equipment will pay for itself in about 15 years.But it is difficult to be precise, because the profits related to the thermal  and sound insulation are difficult to calculate. It may be one of the limits of the green roofs development. 

What are the concrete advantages of these famous green roofs for a private individual?

    > Up to 100% of rainwater retention for certain roofs

    > Thermal insulation of the building

    > Sound insulation of the building

    > the watertightness life is much more long.

For a city like Sonthofen, in Germany where in 1995, an incitement had for consequencethe installation of about 130 000m² of green roofs.The filtering effect of the green roofs had decreased the price of the  waste water treatment from  1,10 € to 0,81 € per m3.

These new green areas are, according to us, a great way, beautiful and economic at the same time, to recreate nature in center town, by using spaces that are not used.

Shake Your Planet

Thank you to Jonathan Fost to have found this company and for  having given us a lot of informations.

 Our guide. Zinco export manager

 Extensive roof with some schrubs

 An intensive roof, 30 years of age !

A philosophical discussion...