Why You Should Have Houseplants in Your Work Environment
Houseplants in your working space can connect the workers with nature. Humans always have the innate desire to connect with nature, and it has a scientific name - biophilia. Let’s find out more benefits of placing houseplants in your working space.
Plants in work spaces improve productivity
Nowadays, every working space is considering adding more plants. Some have included a tiny portion of houseplants in the working environment. Others have decided to take it to the next level. Many workspaces are filled with beautiful flowers and potted plants that make it look like a forest floor and help everyone connect with nature to boost creativity. There are plenty of office spaces designed to include various plant species. Some have hundreds of plants in just a single office area. With this vast number of plants, it requires many gardeners to maintain and maintain them properly. This approach is believed to create a working environment where people can work happily and bring more creativity to work.
Plants help reduce mental fatigue.
Besides looking aesthetically beautiful, plants can offer a visual retreat and acoustic insulation. Placing plants in the workplace can help recharge our brains, enhance cognition and improve productivity. A study on attention restoration theory suggests that a human brain utilises plenty of energy-demanding tasks that require direct attention, leading to mental fatigue. Putting plants in your office can provide you with a little break while doing your intense activities and eventually helps in alleviating mental fatigue by giving a short break to our direct attention tasks.
Plants improving physical health in office premises
Plants in offices can act as an air purifier that helps to remove hazardous compounds that may be present indoors naturally. Plants can decrease carbon dioxide levels, reduce air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, increase humidity, lower the temperature and reduce airborne dust. They have the excellent ability to capture air pollutants, resulting in purer air quality and fewer respiratory problems for dwellers. Indoor plants can decrease the tiredness and headaches of employees by 25 percent. Plants will help improve your mood, increase your focus, and bring more productivity and creativity. Research has shown that houseplants could also improve both the physical and emotional health of people.
Previously, most office premises were extremely insulated to increase heat retention, minimizing fresh air due to the airtight sealing. Because of such an environment, workers suffer many allergy-related problems such as irritation in the eyes, rashes, breathing issues, congested sinuses, headaches, and drowsiness. Introducing houseplants can improve the work environment by minimising potentially harmful indoor pollutants. The importance of placing houseplants in the work environment has been made more aware in the last few decades for the purpose of improving the well-being of the employees, prompting the trend of creating indoor jungles. Another research reveals that houseplants can help in minimising the level of carbon dioxide in your workspace by 10-25%. Placing a palm plant with a height of more than 20cm can decrease a good level of carbon dioxide. Other plants like aloe, peace lilies and rubber plants can also eliminate pollutants from the environment and improve the workplace.