FMJ Facilities Management magazine providing industry-specific intelligence to FM and property professionals
A study by Finnish scientists shows that air-circulating indoor green walls can improve employees’ health.
Conducted as part of the ADELE 2 (Immune Defence and Living Environment) project between Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) and two major Finnish universities, the study is the first of its kind linking exposure to living green walls with improved skin integrity and enhanced immunity against pathogens and allergens.
The study’s results, published in the journal Scientific Reports, are based on 28 office workers divided into two groups in urban office environments in the Finnish cities of Tampere and Lahti.
Eleven participants had their workspaces fitted with air-purifying green walls, provided by Finnish company, Naava, while the 17 remaining participants formed a control group with no green wall exposure. After just 28 days, those working alongside air-circulating green walls experienced an increase in both the number and diversity of friendly bacteria on their skin, compared with workers in the control group, which indicates that being in spaces with green walls has a positive effect on health-supporting skin microbiota as well as the immune system.
Aki Soudunsaari, a health-related serial entrepreneur and Co-founder at Naava said: “From an evolutionary and biological point of view, we are not meant to spend our lives inside concrete boxes – and that’s what most office spaces are like. Whether we humans know it or not, there’s an in-built need in us to be in the middle of nature. In Western societies – due to things like increased hygiene level and biodiversity loss – our natural exposure to environmental microbes has decreased. This is seen as one of the major reasons for the rise of autoimmune diseases and allergies.”
Study subjects in the test group were exposed to green walls only at the office during their workdays. Skin and blood samples were collected three times from both experimental and control group participants to monitor the impact of the green walls.
Providing healthier workspaces with good ventilation has been a priority for companies after the pandemic. However, excessive sanitisation of spaces and surfaces can also have an adverse effect.
Soudunsaari added: “Science has told us that children should be in daily contact with microbes via dirt and soil to boost their immune systems – and it’s no different for adults. Isolating ourselves completely from positive microbes will only harm our health and wellbeing. Sanitisation serves an important function in disease prevention and employee safety, but most workspaces have gone overboard with sterilisation via chemicals.”
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