Freiburg, a Very Eco-Friendly German City

FREIBURG, GERMANY - Green-ness permeates Freiburg. The old-town center is car-free; it's one extensive pedestrian zone of streets, squares and lanes. My energy tour of Freiburg was provided by the Innovation Academy: http://www.innovation-academy.de/english/ueber_uns/dozenten.html with Erhard Schulz as my tour guide (after Hans-Jorg Schwander provided a crash course in clean energy).

Surplus energy homes in the Vauban Solar Settlement - a car-free district in Freiburg with homes designed for maximum energy efficiency by solar architect, Rolf Disch. A surplus energy home creates more energy than it uses.

My eco-friendly heart fell went pitter patter at this sight -- in Freiburg, cars allow bicyclists to proceed first on a green light. In Santa Monica, cars rarely yield to bicyclists (and I often ride on the sidewalk illegally - to survive).

It's bath time in Freiburg, and that means more work for Walter Schneider's cows.

After his cows are milked, a heat exchanger cools the milk, and the energy is sent to his water heater. In the end, his milk cows provide him with both sustenance and a hot bath.

For the complete article, go to:

http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-trw-freiburg23-2009aug23

Follow Terry Gardner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/terrygard

Comments

[Stefan Sirucek - Huffpost Blogger]

Cool stuff from a beautiful city!

Your piece reminded me of another German city that's a leader in Green technology: Darmstadt with its large number of 100% passive solar-heated homes:

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2008/dec/27/1n27warmhome234711-ultra-efficient-home-reality-ge/?uniontrib

Thanks for the article!

[Terry Gardner - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for the link, Stefan. I wasn't familiar with Darmstadt. Until my visit to Freiburg, I never knew proper insulation could reduce a home's energy demands by as much as 85%.

[LMPE]

I know some people from Freiburg.