The science shows us that the benefits of incorporating living walls into urban environments extend far beyond the visual aspect. Improving air quality, aiding biodiversity, and enhancing people’s moods can all be attributed to the plants which make up our green walls and their incorporation can be a key factor for organisations in meeting their sustainability targets.
REMOVING AIR POLLUTANTS & IMPROVING AIR QUALITY
According to Defra, “Air quality is the largest environmental health risk in the UK”. In many of our cities, the air quality is so poor that the level of pollution regularly breaches EU and World Health Organisation guidelines.
Plants are known to remove pollutants from the atmosphere by trapping and absorbing them through their leaves and roots.
Biotecture is developing a dynamic living wall technology called Active Air, which uses the whole system of plants and substrate to significantly reduce nitrous oxides, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter, and create targeted clean air zones for pedestrians.
AIDING BIODIVERSITY
We’re finding that the biodiversity benefits of our living walls are increasingly of interest to our clients. They love to hear that the plants in their wall will offer shelter and food for their local birds and insects. The most obvious of these that we tend to see in our walls are bees and butterflies, but many other pollinators and small creatures find valuable forage in urban areas.
HEALTH & WELLBEING
Spending time in a natural environment has been shown in studies to have a positive effect on people’s mental wellbeing as well as their cognitive function, and our living walls bring the calming influence of nature into all types of urban environments where previously it was lacking.
SUSTAINABILITY CREDENTIALS
Increasingly, sustainability targets are the driving force for our clients incorporating living walls into their projects. This is where Biotecture’s water efficient living wall system offers an ideal solution as it directs water straight to the root zone and uses three to four times less water than an equivalent area of horizontal landscape.
If you’d like to discuss how our living wall systems could benefit your next internal or external project, contact Biotecture on: 01243 572118 / enquiries@biotecture.uk.com / www.biotecture.uk.com.
