Even more incredible was the finding that productivity increased by over 20% with the addition of the plants and the healthier air.

The importance of a healthy workplace cannot be under-emphasized but this research also highlights a way to reduce the energy consumption of buildings. Currently, approximately 40% of the world’s energy is used up by buildings, so if less energy is needed to provide fresh air by using more natural air-filtration, there will be an important energy savings. It’s also a beautifully simple solution to greening homes and buildings by encouraging people to add plants wherever possible – something that everyone can do.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can green your own home or workplace, check out MaRS’ Best Practice Series Brown Bag Lunch event on July 9th: “Green or green-wash? Lessons from building North America’s greenest hotel in Toronto”. Tom Rand, MaRS’ Cleantech Advisor, will discuss which green technologies work and which are just window-dressing. In particular, Tom will discuss the technologies, decisions and problems of transforming a derelict building on our very own College Street into a modern, clean and green hotel.

• http://geothermalinstallation.net Chuck

  All of these things mentioned are great things for the environment but if people installed geothermal thermal systems we could reduce our household energy usage by half. Imagine the impact that would have on our environment, all the households cutting energy use by half.