We've all had the opportunity to be around interior foliage plants when we walk into businesses, malls, museums, hospitals and even our homes. They can be a single stand-alone plant in a decorative container or hundreds of plants grouped together in mass plantings.
Believe it or not, each plant plays an important roll by increasing worker productivity, cleaning the air, carbon dioxide reduction and inspiring creativity.
Studies have been done on the effects of plants and human beings. Through tireless research of green plants, Green Plants for Green Buildings (www.greenplantsforgreenbuildings.com) is an organization that promotes the many benefits of interior plants. Their purpose is to inform decision makers of the significant environmental, health, business productivity and aesthetic benefits of including live plants in our indoor environments.
Respected research was done by Dr. Roger Ulrich of Texas A&M University, Helen Russell, Surrey University, England as well as those conducted by Dr. Virginia Lohr of Washington State University verify that plants significantly lower workplace stress, while enhancing worker productivity. In Dr. Lohr's study, common interior plants were used in a computer laboratory with 27 computer workstations. A computer program to test productivity and induce stress was specifically designed for these experiments. Participants working in an environment with plants were 12% more productive and less stressed than those who worked in an environment without plants.
In an eight-month study, the Texas A&M University research team also explored the link between flowers and plants and workplace productivity. Participants performed creative problem solving tasks in a variety of common office environments or conditions. The conditions included a workplace with flowers and plants, a setting with sculpture and an environment with no decorative embellishments.
During the study, both men and women demonstrated more innovative thinking, generating more ideas and original solutions to problems in the office environment that included flowers and plants. These studies and other studies can be found at www.greenplantsforgreenbuildings.com (excerpts taken from Green Plants for Green Buildings).
Combining this research along with other research done by Dr. B.C. Wolverton, plants have amazing benefits that work in conjunction with people, no matter where plants and people are joined together.
To learn more about these benefits please email questions to [email protected]. Please visit their website at www.parkerplants.com.
Tom Walsh is the business development director at Parker Interior Plantscape Inc., Scotch Plains, N.J.













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