NEDLAW Living Walls

NEDLAW Living Walls is the Canadian company that installed the biowall at the University of Guelph-Humber. 

This Q&A page on their website has some interesting and valuable information. It is well worth reading if you have an interest in biowalls or active green walls. 

The following question was of particular interest to me relative to the widespread junk science on the web about the supposed air cleaning qualities of individual potted houseplants. 

What's the difference between installing an active Living Wall and simply putting a large number of plants in your space?  

Some suggest that plants may remove VOCs from their surrounding environment. However, there is very little available data to support this claim. 

Most studies which find any VOC removal with potted plants suggest it is in the potting soil (where the beneficial microbes live), not the green plant, where the breakdown occurs. Others believe that even if plants can clean the air, they could only clean a very thin layer of air immediately around their leaves. 

When a plant is simply placed on a desk or even in a grouping on a wall, the typical low rates of air movement around it would limit its impact on the air, in the space as a whole. By actively drawing air through a NEDLAWLiving Wall, we force pollutants to the root zone where real breakdown can occur.

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Comments

[Kira]

Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario boasts its own Living Wall too. The newest addition to the main building is a LEED certified atrium. Not sure if NEDLAW did this one, but rain water gets recycled to water plants and flush toilets!

[Greenscaper]

Many thanks Kira. I've visited the RBG site and will post about it.