German workplace regulation specifies ergonomic requirements for seating, screens, lighting and reach, enforced through occupational safety law and inspected. The body is treated as a design constraint with numbers attached.
The manual
Die Bedienungsanleitung. German manuals are thorough to a degree that is often mocked abroad, and the thoroughness is a legal requirement — intended use, foreseeable misuse, safety, maintenance, disposal. The product is assumed to be used by someone who wants to understand it.
The waste hierarchy
German waste law establishes a hierarchy: avoidance first, then reuse, then recycling, then energy recovery, then disposal. Disposal is the last of five options, and the law names the order.
Insulation standards
Wärmedämmung. German building regulation prescribes insulation standards for new construction and for major renovation, with required values for walls, roofs, windows and doors. The efficiency of the building is regulated at the point of construction, when it is cheapest to achieve.
One verb for thrift
Sparen means both to save money and to economise on anything. German appliances have Sparprogramme, cars have Spritsparen, buildings have Energiesparen. One verb covers thrift and efficiency, and Germans use it for both without noticing the join.
Combined heat and power
Kraft-Wärme-Kopplung. Combined heat and power. German plants capture the heat that electricity generation would otherwise waste and pipe it into district heating networks. The waste from one process is the input to another, by design.
Degree of effect
Degree of effect. The German word for efficiency in the engineering sense — output divided by input — and it appears in ordinary conversation about boilers, cars and appliances. The ratio is a household concept, not a specialist one.
The passive house
Passivhaus. A German building standard, developed in the early 1990s, specifying a house that needs almost no active heating — achieved through insulation, airtightness, triple glazing and heat recovery ventilation. The standard is defined by energy consumed per square metre per year. The building is designed backwards from the number.
The GS mark
Geprüfte Sicherheit — tested safety. A German mark applied to products that have been examined by an approved testing body against a defined set of requirements.
It is voluntary. Manufacturers pay to be tested, pay to carry the mark, and submit to periodic re-inspection of the production.
German consumers look for it. A voluntary mark only works where enough buyers check for it to make the cost worth paying.
Waste separation
Die Mülltrennung. A German household separates paper, glass by colour, packaging, organic waste and residual waste, into separate bins with separate collection schedules. The system assumes materials retain value after use, and asks every household to preserve it.