Passerinvest Group mitigates the problem of overheating in Prague. It has been building blue-green infrastructure in Prague’s Brumlovka district for more than 20 years

As climate change progresses, cities are looking for ways to eliminate overheating of urban areas and the creation of heat islands. They strive to preserve a pleasant environment for the inhabitants and all fauna and flora even in places with dense development, or, more precisely, they try to make it even more cultivated. One way is to build blue-green infrastructure. Passerinvest Group has been developing it in Prague’s Brumlovka district for a long time. The company upgrades its projects to include, for example, rooftop gardens, rainwater harvesting systems for soakage or irrigation, develops public spaces including extensive green spaces and a range of multi-purpose water features.  Passerinvest Group believes that the measures it is implementing in Brumlovka to mitigate overheating in the city and buildings, while also supporting biodiversity, can be an inspiration to city leaders and other planners and investors.

The long-term sustainability of the site is a priority for Passerinvest Group and is one of the fundamental pillars of the company’s ESG strategy. Blue-green infrastructure is an integral part of the projects at Brumlovka and is given great attention in the actual design of the building as well as in the subsequent management and operation of all buildings in the concept of the entire site. In the development of the Brumlovka, systems to retain rainwater at the rainfall location and to use it in the area through a variety of measures are implemented in parallel. These measures include, for example, green roofs, storage tanks to catch rainwater, paved walkways and roads allowing rainwater to soak in, greenery in the parterre, polders or contour furrows in the ground surface.

“The first rooftop garden in the Brumlovka site was created in the early days of building Brumlovka, on the Alpha building in 2003.  We were the pioneers at the time who started putting green roofs on office buildings. Such concepts were not common at all at that time,” says Martin Unger, Chief Technical Officer & ESG of Passerinvest Group, adding: “Our original goal of creating a pleasant environment for tenants has gradually transformed into a value and conceptual plan. It is because blue-green infrastructure constitutes an important adaptation measure that can reduce temperatures in dense built-up environments and prevent heat islands. Building it is now a priority for us in all current and planned projects. Considering the benefits mentioned above, we would like this activity to be an inspiration for the city, local government, planners and other investors.“

Properly maintained blue-green infrastructure in Brumlovka has many benefits for the local microclimate and environmental viability as well as for the area as a whole. A significant benefit of this infrastructure is the improvement of public space, which is especially appreciated by the tenants in Brumlovka. In the critical summer months, it can lower the temperature by up to 10-15°C. The vegetation on green roofs, which consists of both tall greenery and lower deciduous shrubs, perennials and grasses, combined with the excess water collected in storage tanks, moistens the air. The water from the tanks is also used to irrigate other green areas, which in turn play an important role in supporting the development of biodiversity and creating a natural sanctuary for a wide range of animals. For the development of blue-green infrastructure, Building B also won an award in the Green Roof of the Year competition.