Mr. Christopher Knabe, Head of OBERMEYER Shanghai Office, was invited to give a speech at the conference under the title of "Development and Prospects for Companies at the Sino-German Ecopark", organized by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Sino-German Ecopark Qingdao. The conference was to inform all partners about some great developments of the Ecopark at an early stage. Mr. Knabe, one of the major players involved in planning the layout of the park highlighted the differences between conventional and energy efficient & sustainable building methods, and how all the various aspects of green building interact with each other.

"For China, the world's largest energy producing, CO2 emitting and coal consuming country in the world, there is no alternative to a drastic increase in efficiency in relation to resource-conserving way of living in many parts of China." He pointed out that the strive for higher living standards and comfortable housing conditions across the country will inevitably lead to higher energy demand and resource consumption. This fact has to be taken into consideration by designers and urban planners. Intelligent planning that includes all environmental aspects and factors of utilization, in combination with advanced technologies, can reinstate natural mechanisms of self-regulation, e.g. absorption and dissipation of rainwater. “Our goal is to build a ‘sponge city’ which stores, dissipates and cleans the water in a natural way.” This sort of modern urban ecological restoration combined with energy-efficient building techniques is the only viable path forward and China has chosen to take it.”