Here are the basics of green wall benefits. As NY green wall installers this is the list of items we tell people who are considering a living wall. Each one of these items could be a blog post in itself, but that’s for a different time. For now here they are short and sweet.
- Reduced Noise – both indoors and outdoors a living wall performs the same acoustic dampening effect. Just like tapestries put on a wall in a sound recording studio, or variegated baffles on the walls of a theater, the plants on a living wall both absorb and disperse the sound wave. A green wall can turn a room that is “echoy” in a room with dampened sounds that are much more relaxing and pleasant to the ear.
- Reduced Energy Costs – When placed on the inside or outside of an external wall, the green wall will act as an insulator to the building, reducing temperature swings in the building and saving on energy costs.
- Air Purification – Via their leaves and roots plants “eat” harmful toxins like Benzene and Formaldehyde as well as simply annoying strong smells. We discuss this in more detail here and here. As the Guardian points out some plants are better than cleaning the air than others according to a study by NASA.
- Increased Well-being – From hospital patients who recover faster, children who learn better and office workers who are more productive, plants make us happier. We are more relaxed, alert, focused and generally better off when around plants. Just do a google search for “plants increase happiness” to see the plethora of articles, researches and data showing the connection between plants and human well-being.
- Marketing Potential – Lets face it, green sells. Everyone knows that green building is the future. Companies that think and build green are the leaders of the future. This isn’t just an economic imperative but it’s a moral imperative. It’s the right thing to do. Buildings will green building components rent for higher rents, sell for higher prices and all things being equal they beat out the competition. Google it. Lots of cool data on this. And of course it, I’m like, “Duh!”. Green building is simply better than the old school way of building things. For so many reasons.
- Humidity Regulation – If you’ve lived in New York during the winter you’ll know that it’s common to have humidity related issues like dry itchy skin, sinus problems, brittle hair, cotton mouth and other dry related problems. This is because the heating dries out the indoor air. A living wall really helps to provide humidity in the air. New York summers on the other hand are humid. BUT, when it’s hot and humid you turn on the AC. What does an AC do? Dry out the air. Same problems again. So in the summer a living wall helps regulate the air as well.