Living walls have aesthetic and environmental benefits, and can be used inside buildings, as well. The Green Issue: Sustaining Our Future

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Emmeline Strickland
6 years ago
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The result was a much more inviting space that upscale guests would see as an amenity, not a nuisance.

1 Sustaining Our Future: Innovation and Ideas curt kipp Lush exteriors The developers of Hotel Modera in downtown Portland, Ore., transformed this former motor lodge parking lot into a lush, welcoming courtyard complete with a sculpture and a living wall. The result was a much more inviting space that upscale guests would see as an amenity, not a nuisance. Living walls have aesthetic and environmental benefits, and can be used inside buildings, as well By Miles McCoy There may come a day when we cover all our buildings with plants. First, it was green roofs for buildings, as we began to adopt environmental plant technology from Europe. Now the same transition seems to be happening with the concept of green walls. New technologies allow us to create living walls, both outside and inside buildings walls that feature live plant material. This is no longer just a concept, but a reality in Europe. A few major walls have been built in the U.S, and several North American companies have launched distinctively different product lines using plants and technology to construct green walls. Green walls are the cornerstone of living, breathing building, said Randy Sharp, a Vancouver, B.C., landscape architect who was interviewed recently in the Vancouver Sun. He is considered The Green Issue: Sustaining Our Future This issue of Digger is dedicated to the concept of Sustaining Our Future. We explore ways the green industry can adopt sustainable practices while improving profitability, as seen in each of three sub-themes: Innovations and Ideas New technologies are making it easier to build living walls (this page), which transform vertical surfaces into living, breathing spaces. Meanwhile, Mark and Jolly Krautmann (Page 49) of Heritage Seedlings have earned recognition as industry leaders and stewards of the land. Protecting the Earth Native plants (Page 28) are rising in popularity due to their striking beauty, ease of care, ability to conserve water, and benefits for local ecologies. Likewise, more and more growers are using beneficial insects (Page 37) as part of their arsenal against certain pests. Conserving Resources These nurseries are acting to eliminate waste (Page 39) from their production processes by composting, recycling and other techniques. You can learn more about sustainability and related topics at the 2009 Farwest Show in Portland, Ore. Watch for sidebars letting you know about scheduled seminar presenters, and log on to for details a leading expert on vegetated building envelope systems. While he has designed many green roofs, he has focused recently on several green wall projects, including the new Vancouver Aquarium. He sees 22 JUNE 2009 DIGGER 21

Sustaining Our Future: Innovation and Ideas SHARP & DIAMOND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE This green wall was installed at the Vancouver Aquarium in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

BIRINGER NURSERY 22 JUNE 2009 DIGGER green walls as greatly increasing the percentage of evaporative surfaces in the city, in sites where large canopy trees may not be possible.

We have to take the designs and technologies of the roof and apply them to the wall, she told the Vancouver Sun in a recent interview.

2 Sustaining Our Future: Innovation and Ideas SHARP & DIAMOND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE This green wall was installed at the Vancouver Aquarium in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Landscape architect Randy Sharp, who helped design the wall, said that living walls have strong potential to increase evaporative spaces in a city and promote environmental quality. BIRINGER NURSERY 22 JUNE 2009 DIGGER green walls as greatly increasing the percentage of evaporative surfaces in the city, in sites where large canopy trees may not be possible. Maureen Connelly, of British Columbia Institute of Technology s (BCIT) Centre for Architectural Ecology, agreed, noting that there is more wall space than roof acreage in any urban area. We have to take the designs and technologies of the roof and apply them to the wall, she told the Vancouver Sun in a recent interview. (We need to) up the ante of the contribution of the whole building envelope to the ecological balance of the urban centre. BCIT ( greenroof) is now a dedicated green roof research facility, and is a collaborative effort between industry, government and academic partners. Their goal is to become the hub for green roof research and industry in western Canada. Benefits mirror green roof pluses Numerous recent articles and publications list the environmental benefits of green walls. Yet, many of these benefits were documented in 1999 research done by Steven W. Peck, now founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, Toronto, Ont., Canada. It was published in Greenbacks from Greenroofs: Forging a New Industry in Canada, by Peck, C. Callaghan, M. E. Kuhn, and B. Bass. The most obvious environmental advantage is the evaporative cooling effects, which can lower building temperatures in summer, and, with evergreen species, even mitigate winter weather. Peck s paper showed that evergreen climber façades would reduce the wind chill factor by 75 percent and reduce heating demand by 25 percent. Obviously, the added green layer acts as extra insulation. Plants also trap carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, so they become a positive in the global warming battle. This effect works well with walls inside of buildings. Other benefits of green walls include the following: Plants soak up pollutants such as lead and cadmium; Green walls reduce noise as leaves absorb sound; Plants mitigate the heat island effect, lowering the temperatures of cities significantly; and

2008 2009 Merging Great Design and Sustainability Practices At the 2009 Farwest Show, Mark Hadley will give a seminar on affordable sustainability at 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 22. See www.farwestshow.

More positives: the public can easily see vertical gardens, unlike their horizontal roof counterparts. Many green roofs are not visible.

3 Merging Great Design and Sustainability Practices At the 2009 Farwest Show, Mark Hadley will give a seminar on affordable sustainability at 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 22. See or next month s Digger for details. They provide habitat for all types of wildlife, including birds, insects, spiders, and even bats. More positives: the public can easily see vertical gardens, unlike their horizontal roof counterparts. Many green roofs are not visible. Green walls can also be retrofitted onto buildings without adding a significant structural load, making them easier than green roofs to install. Climbers or rooted plants Green walls come in two distinct styles, according to Sharp, writing in Building Design + Construction, July 1, These installations are either green façades, or the newer living walls. He described green façades as wall systems where climbing plants or cascading groundcovers are trained to cover specially designed supporting structures. Plant materials, such as vines, are planted in the ground or in containers at the base of the building, in planters, or on rooftops. He said they can be attached to existing walls or built as freestanding structures. Support structures for climbing plants have been around for hundreds of years, and there are lots of cable and grid systems available for green facades, Peck stated. In the same article, he defined living walls (also called green walls, biowalls, mur vegetal or vertical gardens) as pre-vegetated panels or integrated fabric systems that are fixed to a structural wall or frame. Sharp has used modular panels made of polypropylene plastic containers, geotextiles, irrigation, plus a growing medium and vegetation. Other 24 JUNE 2009 DIGGER 23

Sustaining Our Future: Innovations and Ideas From The Vertical Garden: From Nature to the City by Patric Blanc Green walls aren t just for outdoor spaces.

Again, they require irrigation, media and plants. While the newer, modular living walls have less of a track record, they have a big advantage, said Peck.

4 Sustaining Our Future: Innovations and Ideas From The Vertical Garden: From Nature to the City by Patric Blanc Green walls aren t just for outdoor spaces. This interior green wall is located at National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. companies have stainless steel versions where metal trays are attached together to form a planting grid. Again, they require irrigation, media and plants. While the newer, modular living walls have less of a track record, they have a big advantage, said Peck. Since they are pre-grown, they provide an instant green effect, where green façades take longer to become established, he added. Sharp noted that, due to the diversity and density of plant life, green walls require more intensive maintenance (regular water, nutrients, fertilizer) than green façades. In his article, Sharp wrote that these systems support a great diversity of plant species, including a mixture of groundcovers, ferns, low shrubs, perennial flowers, and edible plants. Living walls perform well in full sun, shade, and interior applications, and can be used in both tropical and temperate locations. He stated that these types of gardens are sometimes referred to as urban gardening, since they fit well in an urban environment with its limited ground space but ample vertical space. They can be quite spectacular in appearance, and may even filter clean air into the building. Sharp s recent design for the Vancouver Aquarium s 50-square-meter green wall includes polypropylene modules filled with wildflowers, ferns and ground covers. It replicates the endangered coastal bluff ecosystem. A rainwater harvest system and holding tank provide rainwater to the living wall. Designs using climbers Green wall systems that use climbing plants on trellis designs have been around longer than the module options. A well-established climbing system comes from Los Angeles manufacturer greenscreen ( Its three-dimensional, welded, recycled steel wire trellising creates a modular panel that is the building block of the system. Rigid and lightweight, the trellis comes in standard two- or three-inch thick panels that are four feet wide by six, eight, 10, 12, or 14 feet tall. The 24 JUNE 2009 DIGGER

panel creates a growing space that allows plant material to intertwine and grow. Clips attach the system to a building façade, or span openings between floors or horizontally between posts.

It can hold large six-inch plants, though it requires about 18 inches of space from the wall and a catch basin, and can be supported with drip irrigation and a tank.

5 panel creates a growing space that allows plant material to intertwine and grow. Clips attach the system to a building façade, or span openings between floors or horizontally between posts. A more recent addition is the TerraScreen Interior Greenwall System, mainly for interiors. It can hold large six-inch plants, though it requires about 18 inches of space from the wall and a catch basin, and can be supported with drip irrigation and a tank. The system is composed of modular panels made with powder-coated, galvanized steel wire that can be lined up to create various configurations and designs. It can be maintained by your average interior landscape contractor, according to the manufacturer, Tournesol Site Works of Fremont, California ( G-Sky of Vancouver, British Columbia ( offers three options for green walls: trellises, containers and panels. The trellis is described as an intermediate step between the façades and living walls. Its green wall panels are stainless steel frames with square screens to hold the growing medium wrapped in a bag. The frame and screens are visible for several years, but become covered by the vines. Their green wall containers are made of stainless steel planter systems sitting within a wire mesh trellis for training vines over the building facade. Their panels are similar to the several other systems that use plastic or metal modules filled with soil, planted and either hung or attached to wall (see below). Soil-filled modules Now there are companies taking green roof technology and adapting some of its ideas for walls. Plant Connection ( headquartered in Riverhead, N.Y., distributes a patented green wall system, manufactured by Green Living Technologies. 26 JUNE 2009 DIGGER 25

6 Sustaining Our Future: Innovations and Ideas Their modular wall can be attached in standard and custom layouts. Panels can be built in six-inch increments with standard three-, four- and six-inch depths and made from stainless steel, aluminum or zinc. The company claims the module can even be curved to fit around pillars and other rounded surfaces. The resulting grid of modules is laid horizontally, filled with a soil media, and then planted. Once the plants are well established, the module grid can be placed in a vertical plane, either attached to a wall or used as a freestanding unit. Oregon s Van Essen Nursery is the official grower for the system in this area. After the walls are installed, they use a patented irrigation design that allows for free water flow and drainage and unlimited root migration. The ELT Easy Green Living Wall ( is a modular living wall panel that can be either pregrown or planted in place. Made with UV resistant 100 percent recyclable black HDPE (high density polyethylene) plastic, these 24- by 24-inch panels can be hung singly or in groups. The walls use a patented irrigation system (Bio-Blanket) to water the plants, which sends water down the backside of the wall, where it is easily absorbed by the soil and roots. The company is located in Brantford, Ont., Canada. Europeans travel to far edge Just how far this might go has been demonstrated in the works of French botanist Patrick Blanc and French architect Edouard François. Blanc s career is captured in the book, The Vertical Garden From Nature to the City. He gained notoriety with his mur vegetal installations on buildings. Plants seem to be only primary elements for his art. When asked, he said he was not concerned about the artificial nature of his technology. Do plants really need soil? No, they don t, he said. The soil is merely nothing more than a mechanical support. This green wall at the Pure Yoga building in New York City won the 2008 Environmental Enhancement Award from the Long Island Landscape Association for Steven Dubner Landscaping & Plant Connection, Inc. Following this theory, Blanc replaces soil with felt as a growing medium and adds automated watering and fertilization technology. This keeps the felt moist and the plants alive. Costs are not discussed in the book, and the limitations to this technology are still unknown. French architect Edouard François is another green wall designer. His progressive work comes from the belief that buildings must be decorated, according to Azure, the Web site and magazine ( His most famous project is the nine-story Tower Flower in Paris, for which he developed a facade outside each apartment that holds large pots of bamboo. With architect Duncan Lewis, François created the Holiday Houses vacation homes in Jupilles. Here, he used chain-link fencing on wooden poles that became a plant-covered second skin which, as stated in the article, enabled the building to disappear into the landscape. François used a different approach for his Sproutling building in southern France. Its exterior is composed of rockfilled wire cages used for retaining walls. He used the cages as thin panels fastened to the building exterior. They were then filled with seeds and porous, waterretaining lava rock, as a soil medium. Success of green walls will probably be sold on environmental benefits, not the creative, artistic exploration of using plants this way. The basic technologies now available will be tested, newer versions will improve the suitability of green walls, and they will become an accepted building option. Then, hopefully, designers and landscapers will have some artistic license to create unique designs, just as architects do with their buildings. Miles McCoy is the owner of Sustainable Hort LLC, a sustainable and organic products marketing firm. He has 25-plus years of green industry experience in marketing, communications and research. He can be reached at miles@hevanet.com. green living TM technologies, l.l.c. 26 JUNE 2009 DIGGER

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