LIVING COMPANY HISTORY, 50 years behind us - the best lies ahead
Uwe Harzmann, CEO of Optigrün international AG, provides lively insights into the origins and development of Optigrün, reports on visions and future plans, reveals which roof he would most like to green and why the company has remained loyal to its location in Göggingen!
How did the idea of green roofs come about?
My father discovered the idea in the early 1970s in Switzerland. There, a Swiss gardener developed the basic idea of a green roof system called optima. Because products from our own production could be marketed together with the green roof, this complemented the existing product range of my parents' company in the areas of (flat) roofs, roof insulation, façades and façade insulation.
In addition, my father recognized the ecological advantage early on and acquired the license for Germany in 1972 together with a northern German business partner. After the start with optima roof greening in Germany, the market in Austria followed a few years later. We have also been active in the Netherlands for 25 years.
By the way, on the old advertising photo from 1973 on the top left you can see my parents, my two sisters and me. Back then, we were all allowed to fill the newly built “roof garden” with life as photo models. In the next photo you can see my father (2nd from the right) on an excursion with planners in 1977.
What were the most important milestones in the company's history?
The first few years were characterized by intensive groundwork, as many issues relating to a functional green roof structure had simply not yet been clarified, such as root protection or water drainage. The first FLL green roof guideline was published in 1982, and a major milestone was the development of blowable substrates with appropriate blowing technology for transportation to the roof. (see photo from the early days). This made construction site logistics easier and is state of the art today.
NATURE ROOF
This year we introduced the nature roof. Today, this roof is often referred to as a biodiversity roof. Our nature roof planner (see photo on the right) was a big hit at the time and was displayed in many architects' offices.
RETENTION ROOF AND FLOW CONTROL SYSTEM PATENT
In 1995, we invented the retention roof and applied for a patent for the drainage throttle. With this invention, we were (unfortunately) way ahead of our time. The market was not yet ready for this advanced form of roof greening. Our patent expired after 20 years without us being able to plan and sell the numbers of retention roofs we had hoped for. This has now changed significantly. In 2023 alone, we planned or supplied over 1,200 retention roofs.
RENAMING OF OPTIMA IN OPTIGRÜN INTERNATIONAL AG
When I joined the family business as the third generation, we adapted the company structure to the changed market conditions, changed its legal form, improved its capitalization and thus set the course for our further growth.
LOAD-SUPPORTED FALL PROTECTION OPTISAFE
Optisafe stands for fall arrest systems for fall protection on flat roofs. The special feature of this fall protection system is that it is held in place by the ballast of the green roof and therefore does not penetrate the roof waterproofing and has to be resealed.
MEANDER BOARD
Following nature's example, we have introduced a highly runoff-retarding retention element. With this product system, peak runoff coefficients according to FLL of 0.01 can be achieved. This is absolutely outstanding and far better than the values that can be achieved with imitation products.
LOAD-SUPPORTED SOLAR MOUNTING FRAME SUNROOT 30 (FIRST GENERATION)
A solar system on a green roof? Is that even possible?
With this system, it was possible to offer a solar mounting system that is supported by the green roof structure. The system made it possible to install photovoltaic modules at an angle of 30°, which was common at the time. The green roof has a cooling effect on the solar modules, increasing their efficiency and service life.
LOAD-SUPPORTED RAILING SYSTEM FOR USED ROOF AREAS SKYGARD
A system for the reinforcement of used roof areas that is also only supported by the green roof structure keeps the roof waterproofing closed and intact. In Germany in particular, we have very strict safety regulations that our SkyGard fully complies with.
RETENTION ROOF 2.0
By using various plastic hollow bodies (water retention boxes WRB), we were able to significantly increase the retention capacity of the green roof and thus set the industry standard, which has since been copied by some market competitors.
LOAD-SUPPORTED SOLAR MOUNTING FRAME SUNROOT 15 (SECOND GENERATION)
The system was further developed with the second Sunroot generation. Modules could now also be installed at an angle of 15°. Again, without any penetration of the roof cladding.
SMART FLOW CONTROL (SFC)
The weather-based, dynamically controlled throttle based on current weather data, which more than doubles the retention and evaporation capacity of the green roof compared to the static throttle. This solution was awarded the Gardening and Landscaping Innovation Award in 2016.
LOAD-SUPPORTED MOUNTING FRAME OPTIGRÜN-SOLAR (THIRD GENERATION)
All good things come in threes: the third generation of our solar mounting systems has significant advantages over the previous version: Angles of 10°, 15° or 20°, lower weight, simpler and therefore faster installation. This results in considerable cost savings.
WATER BALANCE CONTROL SYSTEM
We want to restore the natural water balance of a property even when it is built on and thus counteract surface sealing and flooding. To achieve this, we combine our retention roofs with the civil engineering components for water drainage, cleaning and storage from our cooperation partner FRÄNKISCHE Rohrwerke and an intelligent control system based on weather data and the latest weather forecast.
2021 was the most successful year in our company's history to date - following the record result of over EUR 70 million in 2020, we were once again able to increase our turnover. This turnover was distributed across around 7,000 different construction projects with a greened area of around 4.5 million m².
With these figures, we are by far the market leader in Europe and intend to remain so. We look forward to beautiful projects that enrich the world we all live in and bring us joy every day.