TED - Growing AIR - recycle indoor air 100% with just 3 plants.
March 22, 2009 by Ambassador of Green
Researcher Kamal Meattle shows how an arrangement of three common houseplants, used in specific spots in a home or office building, can result in measurably cleaner indoor air. This is accomplished with 3 types of carefully selected basic and common waist high potted plants. Areca Palm , Mother-in-law’s Tongue and “Money Tree”. This without dobut is using green to go green to be sustainably healthy. We categorize such endeavors as Perfect Green, and thus have made a place for this in our magazine, honoring the work of TED and Kamal Meattle.
Click For Video ( 2min ) : www.ctngreen.com/2009/mar/?page=40
Of particular note is that studies show, 20% productivity improvement in workers and a 1% increase in blood oxygen ( measured after only 10 hours ). Impressive. It would seem that if you must plant a tree, put one of these 3 in your office or home at the very least, and at the best, follow Kamal’s simple guidance for trees per person for 100% balance, essentially erasing your own exhaled C02 footprint such as it is, and being healthy while doing it.
Here at CTNGREEN NYC we have Areca Palms and Bamboo, some spider plants for the windows and have noticed that this also levels the room humidity ( as measured by our tech toys for that ) which also makes for a far more comfortable workspace… although not mentioned in his talk, Humidity and aspiration are rather closely related and merely attending to oxygen levels is insufficient for human optimal environmental management.
In Very Dusty areas, wiping the leaves is needed to maximize the benefits, and an electrostatic duster will get this done in seconds. Each of these 3 trees works best with 2 cups of water and 1/2 packet hydroponic ( basically 1 tbl spoon Miracle grow ). Considering the benefits, its the right path to follow.
origination: TED http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kamal_meattle_on_how_to_grow_your_own_fresh_air.html
TheCoveMovie 
Make sure to visit http://greenspaces.in/blog/ted09/ for lots more details on the plants and the entire slide deck!
[...] some cool stuff here: General Hydroponics AeroFlo2 18 Review Hydroponics Online Hydroponic Blog! TED Growing AIR recycle indoor air 100 with just 3 plants CTN GREEN NEWS More infos are available here: TED Growing AIR recycle indoor air 100 with just 3 [...]
Thats cool - do tell us about the hydroponics solutions for this, we are going to follow this regimen and borrow a CO2 counter to before and after our office rooms
There’s a lot of doubt surrounding which methods/products are truly sustainable and which are just green washing. Check out our myth-busting video “What’s Your Big Green Lie?!” which gives a taste of the widespread ignorance of green issues including indoor air testing - should your living room come with a warning? at http://www.biggreenlies.com.
Mentioned in huffpost
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/06/keeping-plants-indoors-ma_n_197631.html
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful and beneficial to your readers :)
I really loved this, as a veggie and nature lover I totally agree with what’s been said.
It made me realise I haven’t got enough plants in my house, so I’ll have to get some more in, especially near my work space.
Thank you
News. since this was first reported we added the money trees ( which BTW are more like vines than trees ) and got our room ppm of CO2 to 310.
Seems around 300 ppm is a happier thing for people, since that room is now where people hang out ( its also likely that windows there are part of it, but they didnt go there intill AFTER the Room Greening )
2 things happen.
1) people are happier for some reason
2) they leave their stuff in there as a reason to return — and clutter up the space.
ppl please dont use the Greening Room as a backpack storage zone thanks
TED - Growing AIR - recycle indoor air 100% with just 3 plants. : CTN GREEN NEWS…
Kako reciklirati zrak v prostoru s samo tremi rastlinami….
Update:
we found a few things about large leaf indoor plants.
1) dust. Look outside on a plant, some but not much dust… look inside on a plant leaf and you get linty fuzzy gray fiberish dust. Ok so some of this is from the paper-shredder ( thanks to junk mail and unwanted credit offers etc ) and some must be from fabrics. We added a HEPA filter that runs from 1am to 5 am on a timer. we will see if that helps.
2) we need more greenrooms, the Greening Room is too crowded.
. So we got a small improvement loan and added a Skylight opening to a south-facing roofline over the kitchen and will duplicate this planting in 2 places there.
Some study indicated that a certain amount of UV is good for photosynthesis. we got an acrylic dome skylight cover that lets in some UV longwave to see if thats true. Shortwave UV is blocked by most plastics, you have to ask to find out what you are getting
Plants— They are wonderful to keep in the home and low maintenance. Someone I ran across had them throughout her entire house (a bit much in my opinion) but it sparked my interest to…
After putting a few in… WONDERFUL and the best part my house continues to smell Fresh and Clean. I’m a fan. Try it. home depot or something pick up a few $3 plants.
http://www.weightlossenergydrink.com
Andy
[...] Zhang: Recycle Indoor Air 100% with Just 3 Plants. Researcher Kamal Meattle shows how an arrangement of three common houseplants, used in specific [...]
Mother-in-laws Tongue
Ok I am a little mad! I (we) just trashed one of those amazing plants: “Mother-in-law’s Tongue”
I did not know about the benefits and my wife is nothing close to a plant caretaker or plants lover at all. And this is tragically funny because I feel sad and ashamed. We received this plant as a gift from my mother in law. It needed practically no care, so I though my wife would be able to keep it, but I noticed her pouring a lot of water on this plant, to the point that I had to put it out side under the sun for a while. The other day I saw the plant (the remaining); it was time to place it in the trash.
Today I see this information and I remember that two years ago I charged $700. To our credit card for an air purifier my wife said she needed. Being part of an Organic solution business make me feel even worse. What else could happen now, I just don’t need to hear my “Mother-in-law’s Tongue” about this subject; she still doesn’t know.
Davinci A.
Please note that mother-in-law’s tongue is poisonous to cats.