THE BENEFITS OF A GREEN WALL


If you’ve been thinking about installing a green wall, here a few reasons that will persuade you to take the plunge and ‘green’ up your interiors.There is an increasing trend toward implementing green walls (also known as living walls and vertical gardens) inside buildings – and it’s not hard to see why. Not only aesthetically pleasing, green walls also offer plenty of environmental and health benefits.

Green walls, like other interior plants, can bring a piece of nature indoors, carrying environmental benefits. Did you know that indoor environments may be as much as 10 times more polluted than outdoor environments? The plants used in green walls can absorb and clean pollutants from the air - through photosynthesis, they take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen.

Living walls also reduce ambient temperatures and provide thermal insulation and acoustical control. By reducing temperature fluctuations, green walls prevent the expansion and contraction of building materials, which could otherwise result in cracks, fractures and general deterioration of the building.

Both exterior and interior green walls can help to reduce cooling requirements and to mitigate the urban heat island effect while helping to save energy. Through the process known as transpiration, plants can slightly cool their surrounding environment. Green walls, with hundreds of plants, can reduce the temperature of a room by three to seven degrees Celsius, cutting electricity bills by up to 20 per cent.

While plants and trees have been used for years as barriers against traffic and other urban noise pollution, green walls inside buildings have the same effect. They insulate against noise and vibrations, and they reduce sound penetration.

Studies have shown that leaves dampen sound by reflecting, refracting and absorbing acoustic energy in small amounts. The amount of noise reduction is proportional to the number of plants, so green walls containing a large number of plants can substantially improve the acoustics of a room.

And if you want to increase workplace productivity, a green wall might just do the trick. Research has shown that having a view of greenery increases workplace productivity and that having plants indoors reduces symptoms of discomfort. Also, gardens that are incorporated into hospitals create a sense of comfort for patients, leading to improvements in clinical outcomes and shortened stays.

In addition to those benefits, living walls are considered space-efficient systems because they make good use of available vertical surface areas, preserving floor space.

With so many benefits, it’s easy to see why green walls are becoming increasingly popular in interior spaces such as office and commercial buildings, residential, department stores, airports and restaurants.