Biomimicry is the science and art of emulating nature’s best biological elements and systems to solve human problems. According to landscape contractor Ian Orlikoff, founder and president of Eco Logic Land Care, interior plants within a green design are a perfect example of how live, indoor plantscapes demonstrate nature’s method of cleaning surrounding air while exchanging it for fresh oxygen. For businesses and homeowners who seek clean, natural solutions to environmental issues, Orlikoff suggests live interior landscaping in the form of green walls, which affirm nature’s efficiency and offer important advantages to human beings, who spend 90 percent of their time indoors.

Living walls, biowalls or vertical gardens, which have been growing in popularity since 1996, are healthy and aesthetically pleasing ways to green homes and businesses. “Interior plant installations now earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) credits in the Innovation in Design category,” says Orlikoff.

He is doing his part to promote the trend of more green walls, which internationally respected air quality researcher Dr. Margaret Burchett, adjunct professor in the faculty of science at the University of Technology, Sydney, suggests may become standard technology for improving indoor air quality in the urban environment. Proven benefits of green walls include indoor air purification; temperature regulation and reduced heat absorption, which can lower energy costs; stress reduction; creation of a green space that can incorporate vertical vegetable or herb gardens; and sound buffering.

Orlikoff agrees that interior or exterior green walls, which consist of carefully engineered, fabricated boxes made of materials to suit their application, are well suited to the urban environment. “These sectional boxes, which are filled with plant materials, allow good use of available vertical surface areas,” he explains. Boxes can be either freestanding or installed directly onto a building structure, with or without an integrated drip irrigation system.

Good examples include the installation of a privacy wall between two properties, an indoor bio-filtration system for mitigation of volatile organic compounds, or a simple indoor green wall box in the kitchen. “You can fill it with your favorite herbs for cooking,” advises Orlikoff, who notes that a green wall installation can turn an unused or unsightly space into an indoor or outdoor living piece of art.

For more information, contact Eco Logic Land Care at 239-348-1302 or [email protected]. Visit EcoLogicLandCare.com.