Here's the link and I agree. Real green building requires "systems thinking" and the integration of multiple systems and iterative design. Good ideas happen everywhere and integrating them quickly into new designs is the real innovation.
Here is an article from 2007 by New York Times architecture critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff, asking "Why Are They Greener Than We Are?" Much has change since 2007 but than Europeans have also passed a lot of new legislation mandating zero energy buildings AND moved further ahead in adopting advanced computer-aided-manufacturing technologies.
