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Plant Benefits
More Than A Pretty Face
Most people would agree that plants add warmth and are esthetically pleasing.
But with lots of demands on limited facilities budgets are there any benefits to
the business bottom line of having plants in the work place? Glad you
asked…read on! Did you know plants can:
Improve employee productivity by up to 12%
Tests conducted by Dr. Virginia Lohr of Washington State
University, Dr. Roger S. Ulrich of Texas A&M University and Helen Russell of
Surrey University, England all concluded that plants are beneficial in both
helping people concentrate and in reducing blood pressure levels. In Dr. Lohr’s
study rooms with 27 computer stations were set up, one with and one without
plants. Participants were asked to work on a computer application that was
created to test productivity and induce stress. The results showed that
participants in the room with plants were 12% more productive, had lower blood
pressure and had a significantly better recovery from stress within five
minutes. To read Dr. Lohr’s full report,
click here.
Improve Customer Perception and Return Rate
Marketers have studied the situational influence of store
layout on the behavior of shoppers (Engel et al., 1990). They found that
interior plants and landscapes create environments that:
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People visit more frequently |
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Stay longer |
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Rate the quality of products 30% higher
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Are willing to pay about 12% more for goods
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Not a bad return for a few plants!
In another study conducted in a London hospital visitors
were surveyed using 20 pairs of bipolar adjectives (quite vs noisy, cheerful vs
gloomy, etc. The results showed that when plants were present, visitors
perceived the environment to be:
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17% more interesting |
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17% more cheerful |
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16% more welcoming |
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11% less stressful |
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11% more expensive |
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8% quieter |
There were no negative findings and the results were
independently verified as being statistically significant (“Human Responses to
Interior Plantings”, J. V. Stiles, PhD, Oxford Brookes University, 1995)
Improve Air Quality by Reducing Pollutants and Dust
Because plants have a large surface area and exchange water and gases with their
surroundings, they are an excellent candidate to tackle many environmental
problems. Findings by William J Fisk and Arthur H. Rosenfeld of the Lawrence
and Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Ca showed that an adequate
installation of interior plants (about 1 plant per 100 square feet) in modern
sealed office buildings were dramatic. They estimated the improved air quality
due to plants could save U.S. companies as much as $58 billion annually by
preventing sick building illnesses!
Indoor pollution is due to everyday things such as
ceiling tiles, floor covering, paper towel which release compounds that cause
ear, nose, throat and respiratory irritation. Bio-Safe Incorporated
recently published their date confirming that energy efficient, sealed office
buildings are often 10 times more polluted than the air outside. B.C. Wolverton,
a NASA scientist agrees in his book How to Grow Fresh Air where he scores
common indoor plants for the ability to help clean the indoor air.
Improve
Your Floor Plan With Less Expense
There are many opportunities to use plants in place of more expensive
alternatives to improve the design and look of buildings such as:
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Hide or soften less attractive features |
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Break up large open spaces, even create a “wall” |
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Use as “signposts” to help people find their way |
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Create a privacy |
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Reduce noise |
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