We have started a pioneering partnership with academics from Staffordshire University which we believe will help both our existing and future customers better understand how well-managed green planted spaces can enhance wellbeing and help to solve social and environmental problems.
From
improving mental health and reducing crime to improving air quality, the issues
that the installation of a well-designed green space can resolve are diverse.
In order to put these benefits on a more scientific footing, we, along with Staffordshire
University, are asking clients – whether from the private or public sector – to
come up with suggestions of what areas they would like investigating.
Scientists from the university will then work with the client and us to research
the precise benefits that these intelligently designed green spaces can bring to
a particular area, for example building insulation, employee attendance rates
or an improvement in general human well-being.
Clients
will then have some scientific data that will enable them to fully grasp the
problems that green spaces can help them solve.
Research
by Staffordshire University is already under way and scientists are conducting
a study which is investigating how successfully carefully designed green spaces
influence biodiversity, improve building insulation and capture microscopic
pollutants, thereby improving air quality and human health.
The
current research being completed at Staffordshire University will help to provide
more information on how pollutants known as PM10s – particulate matter that is
less than 10 microns in diameter – are absorbed by plants. The reduction of
PM10 levels is a focus of policy for the Department for Transport and the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
The
three-year research study, which is in its final year, is being carried out by
PhD student under the supervision of two Professors at the University. A variety of sophisticated scientific
techniques and instruments are being used to understand the nature of a green
space’s interaction with particulate matter, including an environmental
scanning electron microscope, which is used to establish the size of particles
that are trapped by plants. Once complete, the research is due to be published
in a number of international peer-reviewed journals.
Through
an on-going partnership with the university, we hope we will bring similar
scientific rigour to research into the other benefits of carefully planned and
maintained green spaces.
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