Living Wall Benefits

Living walls offer a variety of benefits, many of which fulfill the human need to connect with nature. This is known as ‘biophilia,’ a growing study that emphasizes the physiological and resultant economic benefits that come from restoring natural connections in our built environment.

Wavy living wall with Coleus and Juncus.

Marketing

Living walls are very effective marketing tools.  People tend to stay longer and feel better about their time spent in the presence of plants.

Attract Customers

Shoppers stay in stores longer and visit more frequently when plants are heavily prevalent inside and outside retail settings.

Stronger Sales

Consumers purchase more merchandise and are willing to pay higher prices for goods when surrounded by nature.

Higher Rents

Living walls can be used to improve the view in leased space, translating into more dollars guests or tenants are willing to spend.

Demonstrate Stewardship

A living wall tells customers, residents, employees or neighbors that you care about your community, your health, and the ecosystem.

Living Signage

Local ordinances prohibiting signage may approve a wall of plants featuring organization’s colors or patterned in the shape of a corporate logo.

Green walls have a calming effect.

Health and Well-Being

Research shows evidence of physical and mental health benefits resulting from interaction with plants. Living walls offer space-saving and high impact methods of bringing nature to any environment, thus allowing residents, employees, customers, and patients to benefit from the healing power of plants.

Recover Faster

Patients who physically interact with plants use less medication and experience significantly reduced recovery times after medical procedures.

Enhance Experience

Using plants and planted walls in healthcare enhances the experience of patients, visitors and staff, who report greater satisfaction and positive feelings in the presence of nature.

Wheelchair Accessible

Mobile healing gardens also are possible with LiveScreen, which can be easily moved to allow greater patient access to therapeutic gardening exercises.

Ease Anxiety

Researchers have found lowered cortisol levels and reduced reported anxiety levels correlating with access and interaction with plants.

Positive Emotions

Colors can have an effect on our emotions.  Green is linked to safety, so green foliage typical of indoor plantings create a comforting environment.

Dog laying on a couch on an outdoor patio with a living wall in the background

Human Habitat

It’s not just birds butterflies and bunny rabbits that need habitat… we do too. A well designed LiveWall can be pivotal in defining your patio, garden or rooftop refuge.

Connectedness to Nature

When we’re surrounded by nature, it helps us to stay grounded, balanced, restful and clear headed. It helps us to feel safe and secure.

Civility

Nature makes us better people. It cares nothing about political affiliation, ethnicity or social standing. It teaches us that these things don’t matter. Being surrounded by nature helps us to be better people.

Wonder and Gratitude

Nature continually presents us with opportunities for wonderment, learning and gratitude. It softens our hearts, fosters sharing and helps us to be grateful.

Students at Trent University meet by the living wall.

Performance and Productivity

Our innate need to connect with nature is known as biophilia. This is the driving force behind our mood, focus, and stronger immune system when exposed to natural environments. Living walls are a great way to trigger the biophilic response to improve performance and productivity.

Better Attendance

Workplaces which incorporate biophilic design elements such as access to nature have reduced absenteeism, fewer complaints, and improved staff retention.

Reduce Fatigue

Providing access to nature in the workplace can reduce eyestrain, relieve mental fatigue, and improve focus on tasks.

Increase Output

Integrating plants into workplaces yields productivity gains and reduced psychological stress.

Enhance Performance

Student exposure to nature has been correlated with higher academic performance in Math and English.

Improve Focus

Studies have also demonstrated that exposure to nature eases symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Family enjoys outdoor seating and socializing area at New Holland Brewing's Knickerbocker brewpub in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Improve Space

Living walls can be used to mask the sight, sound, and smell of equipment and utilities to convert undesirable space to gathering places.

Hide Equipment

Green walls are an attractive, organic alternative to traditional architectural siding treatments. Enclosing equipment and utilities with plant walls converts eyesores to beautiful points of interest, transforming hostile spaces to be more inviting.

Reduce Noise

Vertical gardens act as acoustic insulators; dampening and reducing noise. This is a great benefit to occupants affected by traffic, trains, industry, airports or mechanical equipment. In rooms with hard-floors and ceilings, living walls increase sound absorption. A reduction in sound reflection allows for a more comfortable noise level. To optimize noise reduction, increase the surface area of the living wall through billowing or upright large-leaved plants.

Improve Odors

When used to surround recycling and waste dumpsters, or areas housing equipment for wastewater treatment or food processing, living walls can help improve both the appearance and the smell of areas adjacent to these facilities. Studies on vegetation for controlling farm odors found that leaves and other plant surfaces remove some of the dust, gas, and microbial components of airstreams.

Indoor living walls such as this one improve indoor air quality.

Air Quality

Green walls contribute toward cleaner, more oxygenated air.

Natural Humidity

Through the natural process of evapotranspiration, living wall plants also release water vapor that cools the air in summer and restores healthful moisture to heated spaces in winter.

Reduced Particulates

Particulate reduction improves resistance to cold, flu, and itchiness thanks to hydrating the membranes and tissues of the nose, mouth, ears, and eyes, which also leads to a reduction of allergies.

Increased Oxygen

Plants naturally infuse the air with oxygen and reduce carbon dioxide levels for overall improved quality. Plant leaves can remove traces of toxic chemicals such as carbon monoxide and formaldehyde.

Reduced Carbon

Not only do plants take in more CO2 than they release, plants have a natural cooling effect. This results in lowered demand for air-conditioning and the resultant carbon emissions.

Reduced Heat

Less air conditioning also means less hot air is emitted into the atmosphere.  Also, because plants absorb sunlight for photosynthesis, less energy is reflected and absorbed as heat.  The greening of building surfaces helps to reduce the urban heat island effect.

Pastry chef cuts fresh herbs from green wall at six.one.six restaurant in the JW Marriott.

Food Production

Vertical gardens are a solution in the rising urban movement as horizontal space can be difficult to come by in populated areas. Even in rural and suburban areas, restaurateurs, senior housing, healthcare providers, and homeowners are turning to “vertical farming” for affordable, low-maintenance food production.

Healthy Food

When used to grow herbs and vegetables, produce from a living wall provides supplemental food that is healthy for the body and the environment.

Dietary Improvements

Children—and adults—who are involved in the process of growing their own food are more likely to have healthier diets.

Excellent Yields

An exterior living wall planted with edibles and receiving direct sunlight can produce abundant yields, approximately 1 ounce per square foot per week of greens and herbs.

Minimal Bending

Chefs, patients and residents alike do not need to bend or strain their back to enjoy these plant walls.

Friends enjoying living art

Community

Green walls contribute to healthy communities, and are linked to a number of benefits, including reduced crime rates and increased civic participation.

Increased Peace

Increased urban greenery where ground-level landscaping is in short supply. Green communities see less violence, aggression, vandalism, and littering. Landscaped communities encourage residents to spend more time outside, contributing to a greater degree of crime deterrence. Safer communities are more attractive to residents, encouraging population stability.

Community Bonds

Similarly, green communities correlate with increased sense of pride and place, levels of trust, and civic participation. Residents in green communities spend more time outdoors and bonding with neighbors. Increased positive public sentiment can support other goals, such as maintaining population levels that bolster a community’s economic sustainability and stability.

Balanced Solutions

Landscaped communities are more attractive to tourists and shoppers. Community planners can fulfill the desire for greenness through green walls. The plants in the living wall beautify neighborhoods without taking up ground space. Also, surface runoff can be collected, treated and used for irrigation.

Young birds nesting in a green wall planter.

Conservation

Vertical gardens help contribute to efforts of conservationists.

Restore Habitat

Plants and soil help recreate habitat for butterflies, pollinators, and songbirds.

We have observed nests with eggs or chicks in the springtime, and even frogs taking a break in our living wall planters!

Protect Envelope

The LiveWall system is mounted on vertical tracks, which allow for air movement and moisture escape from the building envelope. Plants absorb sunlight and release water during transpiration, which cools the building surface and reduces the amount of expansion and contraction of the envelope due to heat fluctuations and eliminates direct UV exposure.

Save Energy

When used outdoors, the evapotranspirative effects of living wall plants can reduce HVAC costs during hot weather. Maximize the benefits of this cooling effect by covering the sides of the building that receive the most sunlight (in Northern Hemisphere, south- and west-facing) with broad-leaved plants.

Dave MacKenzie's 'Breathe' entry in ArtPrize was a very popular installation of the art festival.

Artistic Expression

Living walls offer a unique opportunity for sustainable artistry.  The LiveWall system acts as a canvas, and the plants as paint.

Paint With Plants

Artistic expression comes to life with LiveWall living gardens, where there is no limit to the creative possibilities. Transform your building wall into a living canvas with a broad palette of plants.

Living Art

Living walls can serve as a means of expression, creating a unique space for people to express themselves in various ways.

Dynamic Works

By its nature, living art moves and adapts to the environment it occupies. Green walls react to available sunlight and grow to fill in space. This creates a dynamic work of art that is always evolving. This ever changing nature creates a unique artistic experience.

Illustrative Art: Featured Projects

The plants in these living walls are arranged to illustrate an object or animal, or to represent an idea, brand, or logo.