Clean up your indoor air with green walls, and grow veggies

Want to insulate your office from the heat and cold outside, while purifying the air inside from potential toxins? Israeli startup Vertical Field is accomplishing that with sensor-controlled indoor and outdoor “green walls” installed by the likes of clients such as the Israeli offices of Google, Apple, Intel and Facebook. Indoor air pollution is an invisible but serious problem. High levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in offices, classrooms, homes, trains and planes could be affecting our cognitive performance and in more severe cases may trigger inflammation or even kidney calcification and bone demineralization, according to a recent study published in Nature Sustainability.

---

Green walls purify indoor air

A solution to sick building syndrome Guy Elitzur, Vertical Field’s CEO, tells ISRAEL21c that one solution to “sick building syndrome”is to bring healthy and natural elements inside. Plants work their magic by transforming carbon dioxide (CO2) into oxygen via photosynthesis. Installing a Vertical Field living biofilter in your home or office can remove about 95 percent of the pollutants in a building, the company claims. Vertical Field’s green walls are not static. Sophisticated sensors measure fluctuating air quality in the building, while cameras track how many people are in a roombumping up the amount of CO2. When the CO2 level goes above a certain threshold, Vertical Field can “manipulate the plants in an active way,” Elitzur says, by adding precise amounts of water, fertilizer and other nutrients through drip irrigation into the planters’ soil in order to increase absorption of CO2 and other allergens. The result is “a wall that reacts to the indoor environment,” Elitzur explains. “It’s not just for beauty” — although a vertical wall of plants is that, too.-- More...

---

---

---