“Commercial land is like gold dust”

„How can Brandenburg remain successful in international location competition?“ Brandenburg faces the challenge of making its commercial and industrial sites future-ready in a global market. At the 2nd Expert Congress „Gewerbeflächen sind Goldstaub“ (“Commercial land is like gold dust”) hosted by Wirtschaftsförderung Land Brandenburg GmbH (WFBB) in Potsdam, one message became very clear: location development and climate adaptation must be considered together.

Attractive business locations require climate resilience

Brandenburg aims to remain competitive as a business location. Minister for Economic Affairs Daniel Keller summed it up: „Brandenburg will continue to need attractive locations in the future – for this, we must develop large, contiguous commercial areas. Municipalities play a key role in this.“ WFBB Managing Director Dr. Steffen Kammradt also emphasized: „Suitable commercial sites are a basic prerequisite for growth and future-proof jobs. We want to further intensify the dialogue with municipalities and districts.“

For us at Green City Solutions, this means: land and site development can only be truly future-proof if ecological and economic sustainability are addressed in tandem. With our nature-based, scalable solutions, we improve air quality, provide cooling at the microclimate level, and create liveable locations – from traditional business parks to highly dense infrastructures such as data centre environments.

Photos: GCS

Data centres, climate adaptation and air quality

One of the key focus areas of the congress was one of Brandenburg’s most dynamic topics: data centres. Participants exchanged experiences on trade tax, waste heat utilisation and power supply. In addition, WFBB presented initial results of a new guideline for municipalities on how to manage data centre developments.

For Green City Solutions, this dialogue is crucial. Data centres are critical infrastructure – and at the same time, they are hotspots where urban heat islands, additional air pollution and new demands on the local microclimate emerge.
Our mission is to use nature-based technologies to create climate-resilient, healthy and liveable business locations that are seamlessly integrated into sustainable location development.

Photo: GCS

The “Marketplace of Opportunities”

As part of the „Marktplatzes der Möglichkeiten“ (“Marketplace of Opportunities”), we were able to present our solutions and concrete use cases directly to representatives from municipalities, districts and the business community. Our CEO Peter Sänger summed up the day as follows:

„It was an exciting day! How is land development being shaped in Brandenburg and what is happening in terms of data centre settlements? As part of the ‘Marketplace of Opportunities’, Green City Solutions was there – to help ensure that these developments are as sustainable and climate-adapted as possible. THANK YOU to Wirtschaftsförderung Land Brandenburg GmbH (WFBB)!“

In this way, we contribute to not only building up urban areas and commercial zones, but actively shaping them as climate-adapted, healthy living environments.

Cross-sector cooperation

One takeaway was particularly clear: „Close cooperation between the state, municipalities and business is crucial if commercial land is to remain as valuable as gold dust in the future“. For Green City Solutions, cross-sector collaboration is likewise a core element of our work.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Wirtschaftsförderung Brandenburg for providing this platform and for the open dialogue. The congress clearly demonstrated Brandenburg’s potential – and how important it is to consistently link climate adaptation, air quality and location development.