It’s certainly no secret that plants add an element of beauty to the office, but their advantages go far beyond aesthetic, as greenery offers a number of psychological and physical benefits.

 

Plants Help Improve Air Quality
Research indicates that plant-filled rooms contain 50% to 60% fewer airborne molds and bacteria than rooms without plants. Dr. Bill Wolverton spent nearly 20 years at the Environmental Research Laboratory at John C. Stennis Space Center testing this. He found that plants suck chemicals out of the air, absorb the office pollutants into their leaves and transmit the toxins to their roots, where they are transformed into a source of food for the plant. Based on those findings, Dr. Wolverton recommends that everyone have a plant on his or her desk within what he calls the “personal breathing zone”. This is the area of six to eight cubic feet where employees spend most of their working days. Only one plant per 100 sq. ft. will do the job! Just 15 to 20 plants are enough to clean the air in a 1,500 sq. ft. area.

Studies have also shown that indoor air pollution can induce Sick-Building-Syndrome (SBS), with symptoms of coughing, wheezing, headaches, sore eyes, nose, or throat, loss of concentration and nausea. Many types of plants have a proven ability to improve air quality by removing pollutants such as benzene (tobacco smoke, gasoline, oils, detergents, inks, plastics), formaldehyde (foam insulation, plywood, carpeting, household cleaners), and trichloroethylene(dry cleaning, paints, varnishes, adhesives ect.) from the air we breathe as proven by NASA. According to the agency, the following indoor plants are known to removing indoor pollutants: Peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii), golden pothos (Scindapsus aures), English ivy (Hedera helix), chrysanthemum (Chrysantheium morifolium), gerbera daisy (Gerbera jamesonii), snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata 'Laurentii'), bamboo palm (Chamaedorea sefritzii), azalea (Rhododendron simsii), marginata (Dracaena marginata) and spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum), Janet craig, Warneckii, Corn plant, Philodendron and Diefenbachia.

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Plants Help Increase Oxygen Levels
Inhaling brings oxygen into the body, exhaling releases carbon dioxide. During photosynthesis, plants do the opposite, of sorts: They absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, making plants and people great partners when it comes to gasses. As part of the photosynthetic and respiratory processes, plants release moisture vapor, which increases humidity of the air around them. Plants release roughly 97 percent of the water they take in. There is general agreement amongst scientists that plants improve the indoor environment and are useful in fighting the modern phenomenon of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). No specific cause of SBS has been identified but poor air quality, excessive background noise and inadequate control of light and humidity are all thought to be important factors. Because plants have large surface areas and exchange gases and water with their surroundings, plants can help tackle some of these issues

Plants Help Lower Background Noise
 Plants have long been used to reduce noise from busy roads. More recently, research has shown another benefit: interior plants can help to reduce background noise levels inside buildings, too. Plants and their leaves absorb, diffract or reflect background noise, thereby making the environment more comfortable for the occupants. 

Office Plants Promote Occupant Health and Well-Being
 Medical research shows workplace stress and negativity reduces productivity and performance and leads to illness. Stress-related illness is a widespread urban health concern; and staff illness & sick-leave absenteeism are used as direct indicators and measures of lost productivity. International research shows indoor plant presence reduces illness such coughing and wheezing, dry eyes, nose, throat and so on….reduce work absenteeism and increase productivity. Those brief glimpses of living greenery in our immediate environment provide us with unconscious feelings of calm. This momentarily relaxes us, resetting our ‘attention-button’ and preventing development of attention fatigue, feel better, work better and longer better performance — and we feel happier about it all too.