Berlin Incentivizing Nature-Based Solutions to Environmental Challenges
Berlin is actively encouraging businesses to incorporate nature-based solutions on their premises as part of its Berlin Strategy for Biodiversity Preservation.
In 2012, the Berlin Senate created and adopted the Berlin Strategy for Biodiversity Preservation. The strategy outlines the foundations for fulfilling Berlin’s part in the global responsibility of preserving biodiversity. The strategy aims to reverse Berlin’s environmental degradation in which 31% of native plant and animal species are endangered and 13% have already disappeared or are considered to have died out.
Encouraging businesses to restore the natural environment
The Berlin Strategy for Biodiversity Preservation outlines themes and goals for how biodiversity can be best preserved and expanded in a modern metropolis. As companies typically have large premises the strategy encourages businesses to implement a variety of nature-based solutions to restore the natural environment, including reducing sealed surface areas and implementing rainwater retention features.
Incentivizing decentralized rainwater management systems
In 2018, Berlin Wasserbetriebe revised its rainwater fee from EUR 1.804 per square meter of drained ground per annum to EUR 1.840 per m²/year. The fee revision is part of the State of Berlin’s aim of re-orientating how rainwater, in both new and existing buildings, is managed: away from the pure discharge into the sewage system to decentralized management that supports the natural environment.
With the rainwater fee based on the built-up and paved area from which rainwater is discharged into the public sewage system, companies that implement decentralized rainwater management systems are eligible for a partial or even complete exemption from the fee.
Benefits of managing rainfall onsite
At the neighborhood-scale, the specific benefits of decentralized rainwater management systems include:
- Lower discharge volumes entering the sewage system and sewage treatment plants
- Protection of water quality
- Improvement of the urban climate, particularly the cooling effect of evaporation
- Increased biodiversity through the creation of biotopes
- Improvement of open space design
The take-out
Cities can incentivize large-property owning businesses to implement nature-based solutions onsite to enhance nature city-wide.
