Green Walls, mummified plants and social justice- are green walls anything except performative?

By Ana Pastore, Mary Wuhlar, & Olena Kuzhym

Image 1: Original image- Sony, sourced via (https://collider.com/a-knights-tale-soundtrack-marie-antoinette/), Author’s own edits

Green walls are vertical installations, often installed within a building to create a sense of nature. They are also known as living walls or vertical green walls (Mustonen, 2017) and were made extremely popular by one of the pioneers, Patrick Blanc.

Image 2: Patrick Blanc. Sourced via Greenroofs.com (https://www.greenroofs.com/2022/02/14/the-vertical-gardens-of-patrick-blanc/)

Green walls differ from green facades in that they aren’t a structural component of the building itself, rather an added element- generally applied to the interior and used to beautify a space. The additive nature of green walls leads us to question whether they have potential to act as a Nature Based Solution (NbS), or whether they are simply greenwashing, applied in the offices of startup companies spelling out their logo on the wall, in a nod to their corporate social responsibility and “sustainable” practices. 
 
We are curious about whether green walls are a reflection of or even enhance social inequities, whether there is any possibility of using green walls as NbS’s, and whether these green walls are even “natural”, “green” or sustainable at all.

Image 3: Diagram of key green wall actors and case studies used. Author’s own

In conceptualising whether green walls are anything but performative, we drew inspiration from gamification techniques as a methodology to stimulate engagement and discussions, based on research and the selection of keywords. 

This approach is inspired by IUCN and Luc Hoffman institutes approaches to applying gamification into conservation efforts, using them as a tool to stimulate funding & engagement in conservation. 

We’ve developed a bingo game, stemming from key words and phrases captured within our study! This is a starting point- play a game, then explore more about the concepts and phrases contained on the bingo sheet. You’ll find more information about green walls, equity, social justice and access- is the beauty of a green wall only skin-deep? Who are they helping? Are they “natural”? 

Image 4: Bingo. Author’s own, template via Canva

Brussels Case Studies: 

The first case we focused on is ‘Greenmood’, a supplier of green walls for interior design. The company designs and produces as they call it “0% maintenance preserved plants”. If you wonder how can plants require no care, the answer is easy, they are simply not alive. Two of Greenmood’s suppliers, one in Kenya, and another in Spain, grow the plants in their natural aerial, cut them and then mummify them with help of glycerine. Positioning itself as a seemingly sustainable brand, the company reveals the obvious duality through its communication. Focus on such benefits of green design solutions as employees’ productivity and aesthetics can rather be associated with the exploitation of the workforce and consumerism rather than the positive environmental impact. Meanwhile, the supply chain that includes Kenya without any clear justification clearly does not seem optimal for carbon footprint minimization. The interview with Greenmood’s CEO helped us to uncover the questionable inclusivity of the services and products of the firm. The target clientage mostly includes businesses from wealthy European and Northern American countries since those are the ones who can afford the products. Interestingly enough, Mr Alekperov (CEO) explained the fact that Europeans constitute the majority of the client base since they share the same ‘values’ as the company and are ready to pay more for ‘greener’ products…

Greenmood Interview snippets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOikIA2CKTY

The desk research we performed showed that among the customers of green walls, the hospitality sector is widely represented. Green walls are used for a multi-purpose marketing strategy that focuses on sustainability, aesthetics and clients’ mental and physical well-being. The most prominent example we popped into was the newly-renovated Indigo hotel, where marketing was heavily based on the green pillar. The hotel emphasises its uniqueness as its green facade forms a strong contrast to the background of the ‘sea of glass and steel office buildings’ it is surrounded by. Buzzwords like ‘botanical atmosphere’, ‘reminder of the pastoral era’, ‘cultural fusion of horticulture and urban life’ and ‘green dining experience’ appear as the first indications of greenwashing. Not only green walls are used to boost the consumerist-oriented nature of hospitality, but also the marketing narratives seem to merely focus on the aesthetical aspect rather than the functional aspect of this NbS. Moreover, they served as a valid excuse to increase the provided services’ prices making them ‘exclusive’ not only in a sense of the uniqueness of experience but also the financial affordability.

Image 5: Keywords compiled from case studies. Background: Still from GreenMood promotional video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAj2CVOKBvs) Edits: Author’s own

Imagined and realised best practices:

Image 6: Green wall “best practices". Author’s own

Controlled studies testing just how effective green walls can be as a NbS (Azkorra et al, 2015), (Cameron et al, 2014), Teotónio et al, 2021) confirm that a multitude of benefits can be gained. These benefits include reducing the thermal load on buildings, energy savings (such as reducing the usage of air conditioning), noise reduction and biodiversity support. BUT particular design strategies must be taken into account: placement of the green wall (exterior vs interior, size, position), species chosen (some species are more purifying, cooling, shading), and assemblage techniques (particularly for acoustic noise reduction). 

Unfortunately, green walls have become a gadget for performative corporate social/sustainable responsibility - favouring anthropocentric aesthetic benefits over environmental/ecological benefits. This is mainly due to cost, maintenance, and visual appeal. The case study of Greenmood revealed that interior zero maintenance models are the most popular of their products, where species are chosen based on their ability to be “mummified” and aesthetic appeal is priority, going as far as dying moss for brighter colours. It is evident that potentials realised in academia are not commonly translated into practice by suppliers. 

Implications with the IUCN/NbS:

In applying the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Framework for NbS (IUCN, 2020) against the case studies of this blog post, it is clear that the green walls we have explored do not meet the definition nor framework of a NbS, however they may have some impact upon human wellbeing. This analysis against the global framework has shown that green walls are generally used as an additive feature of spaces, focused on aesthetics rather than climate change adaptation or ecological contributions to the broader urban context. Within exterior green facades, there could be broader potential for conservation, however the case studies we explored did not allow for this to be analysed further.

Image 7: IUCN Framework for NbS: Green walls. Author’s own

Implications with social justice:
We can see parallels between the accessibility of green walls and the accessibility of green neighbourhoods in cities. Both are only accessible to those who can afford the installation and maintenance costs. In both cases, those who can afford greenery commonly opt for techniques that favour aesthetics over ecological factors: upper class neighbourhoods prefer manicured lawns and gardens, just as the corporate/hospitality worlds prefer interior, heavily curated green walls. The point here is not to have green walls accessible to all, but rather to address that the costs allocated to mere greenwashed aesthetics could be used for more sustainable options.

Conclusion:

Green walls as a green washed NbS for those who can afford to install, maintain and “enjoy”.
The nature contained within the green wall’s we’ve explored here are ironic- a synthetic allusion to nature in the environments that are as far from “natural” as possible- transient spaces like airports, hotels and offices. The places these green walls exist are generally the most exclusive places, places where affluence and success is shown through an ability to afford the monthly subscription to a “green” desk divider, but almost absurdly unable to imagine connecting the people within these spaces to actual nature, to participate in conservation efforts beyond corporate responsibility, and to share this equity beyond the walls of the office, into a broader, interconnected effort to sustain and nurture the natural world. Even if green wall suppliers took academic studies for best practices into consideration, do these green walls provide substantial potential for broader change.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Azkorra, Z., Pérez, G., Coma, J., Cabeza, L.F., Bures, S., Álvaro, J.E, Erkoreka, A., Urrestarazu, M. (2015). Evaluation of green walls as a passive acoustic insulation system for buildings. Applied Acoustics. 89, 46-56. ISSN 0003-682X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2014.09.010. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003682X14002333)

Blanc. (2020). Welcome to Vertical Garden Patrick Blanc | Vertical Garden Patrick Blanc. Retrieved May 2, 2022, from https://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/

Cameron, R. W. F., Taylor, J. E., Emmett, M. R. (2014), What's “cool” in the world of green façades? How plant choice influences the cooling properties of green walls Building Environment. 73, 198-207, 10.1016/j.buildenv.2013.12.005

Dellecker, A. (2020, December 17). How gamification could revolutionise conservation. Luc Hoffmann Institute. https://luchoffmanninstitute.org/how-gamification-could-revolutionise-conservation/

IUCN. (2020, July 14). IUCN Global Standard for NbS. IUCN. https://www.iucn.org/theme/nature-based-solutions/resources/iucn-global-standard-nbs

IUCN (2020). Guidance for using the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions. A user-friendly framework for the verification, design and scaling up of Nature-based Solutions. First edition. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.

Luc Hoffman Institute. (2020, December 17). How gamification could revolutionise conservation. Luc Hoffmann Institute. https://luchoffmanninstitute.org/how-gamification-could-revolutionise-conservation/

Mustonen, T. (2017). What are Green Walls—The definition, benefits, design and greenery.    https://www.naava.io/editorial/what-are-green-walls

Teotónio, I., Silva, M. S., Cruz, C. O. (2021). Economics of green roofs and green walls: A literature review. Sustainable Cities and Society. 69. ISSN 2210-6707, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.102781. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210670721000731) 

Valamis. (2021). What is Gamification? Examples and Best Practices in eLearning. Valamis. https://www.valamis.com/hub/gamification

We developed a lot of ideas and brainstorms around this blog post via Miro, which we are happy to share with you- just send an email!