Will Living Plant Biowalls Help Under Armour Become a $10 Billion-Per-Year Company by 2020?
Spiraling tendrils of curly vines frame the face of the iconic steel Under Armour logo as a part of a leafy living biowall they’ve installed at the cafeteria of the company’s Baltimore campus. They’ve joined the indoor safari party alongside Google, Aveda, Trulia, and Pandora who also have their own versions of jungle-like walls.
Are these teams just embracing their wild side or are they strategically achieving highly-coveted outcomes like increased well-being, health, productivity, creativity, collaboration and overall stress reduction?
Surprisingly, yes and yes.
Under Armour's biowall is a part of a grand plan to give their teams every competitive advantage possible as it pursues a far reaching goal of becoming a $10 billion-per-year company by 2020 in an effort led by work space optimization guru Neil Jurgens. Jurgens is using a science-based approach to design environments that connect with a deep-rooted and ancient need we have, as humans, to be close to nature. The result: teams produce their ultimate work products in modern times.
Right now, most workspaces are just plain unhealthy...
The EPA cites increasing scientific evidence that suggests indoor air can be a source of more serious pollution than outdoor air “from the largest and most industrialized cities”. This is especially relevant, they say, as people spend “approximately 90 percent of their time indoors.”
The good news is that living plant biowalls eat floating indoor toxins for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The leaves are constantly having an air purifying effect, comparable to expensive man-made air cleaning systems, that modify the structure of the invisible chemicals that densely fill our closed offices, like formaldehyde, ammonia and benzene. These are the nasty byproducts of everything from carpets to paints to other building materials that contribute to the cause the sick building syndrome (SBS) that NASA found is, ironically, especially abundant in energy-efficient buildings.
SBS is expressed as brain fog, headaches, irritability and a variety of other symptoms that don't make it easy to work and is a commonplace experience in many offices. Improving air quality with plants and biowalls significantly helps.
That’s just the beginning.
Stress-reduction Benefits...
There’s no such thing as no stress, especially at work. In fact, good stress fuels high-performance, whereas bad stress turns off the logical, thinking brain. What determines whether stress is bad, and leads to burnout, or stress is good, and results in hyper productivity, is dependent on a variety of factors like how a person appraises the stressful situation.
The key to doing this is minimizing as much unnecessary and excessive stress as possible. Apparently, our plant friends our great at helping us to do this.
That leads us to our wild side.
Embedded deep in our survival hardwiring, is an instinctive affinity for nature-based elements like greenery, water and sunshine. Researchers explain how incorporating these elements into the office have measurable advantages. Thanks to the “automatic calming effect on physiological arousal,” you’re soothing work-related anxiety and depression as well as rocketboosting overall job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
“Taking at least 20 minutes out of your day to stroll or sit in a place that makes you feel in contact with nature will significantly lower your stress hormone levels,” explains Dr. MaryCarol when discussing her findings published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology. Imagine the major stress-reduction bonus points you get for hanging out all day next to your biowall at the office.
Creativity & Productivity Advantages...
As the plant walls or “biophilic design elements” are hard at work, keeping the air clean, minimizing stress levels and improving our mood, we can actually start to work hard ourselves.
In an article by Harvard Business Review “Research: Stale Office Air is Making You Less Productive”, researcher Joseph Allen explains how his team’s double-blind study, that focused on improving indoor office air quality, resulted in impressive jumps in decision-making performance - notably in making better strategic decisions during times of crisis - as well as higher test scores in nine cognitive function domains.
The green-certified buildings, with improved indoor air quality, they collected data on as a part of this line of analysis correlated with:
26.4% higher cognitive test scores
6.4% higher Sleep Quality Scores
30% fewer sick building symptoms
Therefore, factors essential for maximizing productivity at work, improved.
Moreover, let’s say in our buzz of productivity, we’re craving creative inspiration. All that’s necessary, according to this study, is to quickly glance over at the office greenery to boost creative performance.
This is just a sampling of a vast collection of research championing plants at work that’s growing faster than the vines on our office walls.
In conclusion, will living plant biowalls help Under Armour’s team achieve its goal of becoming a $10 billion-per-year company by 2020? If anything is going to give Under Armour the laser-like focus it needs to realize its ambitions, it’s things like installing walls of plants that reflect a science-inspired thoughtfulness and meticulous attention to well-being at work that will allow its team's awesome to blossom in today's urban jungle.