Living wall benefits: the technical and environmental case

Health and Serenity

A living plant wall is far more than a decorative feature. A living wall system delivers measurable, documented benefits on its environment: indoor air quality, thermal and acoustic comfort, urban heat island reduction, biodiversity, and real estate value. This page brings together the technical data and references useful to architects, project owners, facilities managers and landscape contractors integrating vertical greening into their projects.

Living wall and indoor air quality

A living plant wall indoors acts as a natural air filter. Plants absorb a portion of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in indoor environments — formaldehyde (CH2O), benzene (C6H6), trichloroethylene (TCE) — substances commonly found in furniture, paints, floor coverings and certain building materials. This absorption occurs through the leaves but primarily through the micro-organisms present in the growing medium at root level, which break down and assimilate these chemical compounds.

At the same time, living plants produce oxygen through photosynthesis and help regulate ambient humidity levels. In air-conditioned commercial spaces — offices, hotels, meeting rooms — where air is often dry and depleted, an indoor living wall concretely improves the quality of the working environment.

These properties are recognised and integrated into the WELL and BREEAM environmental certification frameworks, which explicitly value the presence of living vegetation in living and working spaces.

sticker-fleur-de-lotus-ambiance-sticker-

Vertical garden and well-being at work

The presence of living plants in professional spaces has a direct and documented impact on occupant well-being. A study conducted by British researcher Professor Cooper, a specialist in work organisations, carried out across 3,600 employees in 8 countries, showed that working cut off from nature profoundly affected motivation and morale. Conversely, employees working in environments with greenery and natural light displayed the highest levels of enthusiasm and creativity, across all countries in the study.

A living wall addresses precisely this urban constraint: it brings living nature into spaces where a traditional garden is impossible to install. For hotels, restaurants, reception areas, coworking spaces and corporate headquarters, a natural vertical garden is both a functional and differentiating investment.

Green facade: thermal insulation and urban heat island reduction

The urban heat island problem

Highly urbanised areas generate microclimates where temperatures are significantly higher than in surrounding rural areas. This urban heat island effect is amplified by the density of hard surfaces — concrete, tarmac, glass — which absorb and release solar heat. The vertical greening of building facades is one of the most effective technical responses to this phenomenon in dense urban environments.

Thermal performance of the Vertiss green wall cladding system: measured data

The Vertiss Plus rainscreen cladding system is based on a multi-layer assembly in which each element contributes to the overall thermal performance of the facade:

The plant cover reduces solar heat gain through shading, evapotranspiration and sunlight reflection
The 13 cm substrate layer evaporates water vapour away from the building envelope, amplifying the cooling effect
The EPP (expanded polypropylene) module has a thermal conductivity of 0.04 W/m.K, providing an additional insulating layer
A 4 cm air gap between the building facade and the back of the module evacuates heat flows by convection through the upper part of the cladding

In summertime, the Vertiss green wall cladding reduces the inside wall temperature by an average of 1.5°C, both day and night. These results are consistent with scientific literature on living wall systems, which measures wall temperature reductions of between 0.5°C and 7°C depending on orientation and planting density (Malys, Musy and Inard, 2014 — Modelling the effects of vegetation on the urban microclimate), and solar thermal load reductions of 46 to 67% depending on system configuration (Rossini-Oliva et al., 2023 — Energy and Buildings, ScienceDirect).