The 1st of September was Arbour day, and in South Africa – since 1996 – the first week of September has been acknowledged as National Arbour Week: a week in which individuals are encouraged to plant trees and consider the benefits of plants and trees in the natural environment.
Take a look at the Arbour day piece we published last week if you are interested in the international history of Arbour day celebrations.
At Ambius we are passionate about including plants in the interior working environment. We know that plants can have significant productivity and wellbeing benefits for employees, and can improve visitors’ perceptions of a business. Both of these result in improvements to the bottom line, and in these tough economic times, who doesn’t want that?
You don’t have to take our word for it; there is a large body of scientific evidence that substantiates these claims. In light of the fact that it’s Arbour month, we’ll be looking at the benefits that plants can make to the indoor environment in this, and our next blog post.
Benefits of plants and trees:
Amongst the many benefits of plants and trees are the number of products that we derive from them: building materials, paper, fibre, oils, gums, syrups, pharmaceutical products, fruit and nuts to name but a few.
Trees and plants are also a crucial element in the fight against climate change, due to their natural ability to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store the carbon as biomass.
But what about plants grown in an interior environment, such as an office? Are they still providing the same environmental benefits as their “natural” or exterior counterparts, and are there any benefits to having plants indoors that go beyond the environmental?
There is a growing body of research that answers these questions and looks at the advantages that plants provide in an indoor environment such as an office.
The benefits of indoor plants are divided broadly into two categories:
- The environmental benefits of a green office which are mostly related to improved air quality, which in turn impacts on employees’ physical wellness
- The psychological benefits of a green office which impact employee motivation, productivity and stress levels.
In this post – part 1 – I’ll briefly discuss the environmental benefits of having plants indoors. In part 2 next week I’ll look at the related well being and psychological benefits of plants on employees.
Environmental benefits of indoor plants:
An extensive study undertaken by Dr B. C. Wolverton of NASA proved that indoor plants significantly improve the air we breathe. In the study, indoor plants removed up to 87% of volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) from an indoor environment over a 24 hour period.
Why are VOC’s a problem?
VOC’s are commonly found in a wide array of building materials and cleaning products. They are the primary cause of both acute and chronic diseases. Products that emit VOC’s number in the thousands, making it extremely difficult to eliminate them. Paints and surface finishers, particle boards and furnishings are common sources of VOC’s. So are air fresheners, carpets and cleaning materials.
Skin, eye and upper respiratory tract irritation often result from the presence of VOC’s. Asthma, headaches and chronic diseases – including cancer; neurological failure and liver damage – have all been linked to VOC’s. The WHO reported that 3.8 million deaths are attributed to household air pollution annually.
The quality of indoor air:
Wolverton’s NASA report is fully supported by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA rates indoor air pollution as amongst the top five threats to human life. They found that toxin levels in climate controlled buildings were anywhere from 10 to 1000 times more concentrated than toxin levels experienced outdoors. Let’s just think about that for a moment … Your office air is more polluted than the air outside.
In a nutshell, as a result of these and many other studies, we now understand that indoor air can be significantly improved with the inclusion of indoor plants. And that by improving the air that office workers breathe every day, plants can assist in the fight against acute and chronic diseases. Thus interior plants contribute significantly toward a healthier (and by extension a more efficient and productive) workforce.
In part 2 of this post next week I’ll take a look at how plants impact employee wellbeing in other ways. We’ll also discuss how the psychological benefits of having plants indoors can create a more motivated, engaged and productive workforce.
For more information on the benefits of interior plants, visit our website or call us on 0800 77 77 88.
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