Home ☺ Guaranteed Services ☺ Benefits ☺ FAQs ☺ Plant Gallery ☺ Clients ☺ Site Map ☺ Contact Us
It’s finally possible
to have an energy efficient building without “Sick Building Syndrome!” Plants
help with bottom line savings on mounting sick leave expenses.
“Sick Building Syndrome” develops into a
serious and expensive liability when these toxins become concentrated inside
sealed office buildings. NASA reports that the syndrome is widespread in these
energy efficient buildings. The problem is that these sealed energy efficient
buildings have less exchange of fresh outdoor air for stale indoor air. This
causes higher concentrations of toxic chemicals in indoor environments, brought
about by emissions from a great variety of building constituents. As energy
efficient construction becomes absolutely essential, ‘green building’ designers
have become justifiably concerned about this indoor air quality (IAQ) dilemma.
Perhaps one of the most troubling reports comes from research published by
Bio-Safe Incorporated (New Braunfels, Texas). Their data confirms that energy
efficient, sealed office structures are often 10 times more polluted than the
air outside!
Research shows that plant-filled rooms
contain 50-60% fewer airborne molds and bacteria than rooms without plants. For
almost twenty years Dr. Billy C. Wolverton and his
aids in the Environmental Research Laboratory of John C. Stennis Space Center
have been conducting innovative research employing natural biological processes
for air purification. “We’ve found that plants have been found to suck these
chemicals out of the air,” he says. “After some study, we’ve unraveled the
mystery of how plants can act as the lungs and kidneys of these buildings.” The
plants clean contaminated office air in two ways. They absorb office pollutants
into their leaves and transmit the toxins to their roots, where they are
transformed into a source of food for the plant. In his book, How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 Houseplants That Purify Your Home
or Office (Penguin, 1997), Dr. Wolverton details
exactly how plants emit these water vapors that create a pumping action to pull
dirty air down around the roots, where it is once again converted into food for
the plant.
Wolverton has found that plants are especially
needed in office buildings in which sick building syndrome is common. He goes
so far as to suggest that everyone have a plant on his or her desk, within what
he calls the “personal breathing zone.” This is an area of six to eight cubic
feet where you spend most of your working day. Jay Naar,
author of Design for A Livable Planet, suggests 15 to 20 plants are enough to
clean the air in a 1,500 square foot area.
6751 Signat Drive
Houston, TX 77041
email: touchofgreen@email.com
713-861-6918 Fax: 713-466-7335
Home ☺
Guaranteed Services ☺
Benefits ☺
FAQs ☺
Plant Gallery ☺
Clients ☺
Site Map ☺
Contact Us