February 6th, 2009
How to 'grow' your own indoor fresh air
A presentation delivered this week at the TED 2009 conference demonstrates how you can “grow” fresh air indoors with just three varieties of plants. The discovery was the result of 15 years of testing at Paharpur Business Centre and Software Technology Incubator Park (PBC™ - STIP) in New Delhi, India, an eco- friendly oasis for businesses avoiding polluted air. The research showed that there’s a 42% probability of increasing blood oxygen by 1% if one is inside the building for 10 hours, boosting worker productivity by 20%. They were also able to reduce the fresh air supplied to the building and still meet industry standards for healthy indoor air, netting a reduction of energy costs by greater than 15%.
Pleased with the results, the consortium is planning on replicating the concept with over 60,000 of these plants in GreenSpaces, a 1.75 million square feet LEED© certified ‘Super’ Platinum Green Building and Technology Park, just outside of Delhi.
Here’s the slide show:
Just in case you’re wondering, an accompanying video to this presentation may not be available as it wasn’t one of the famous main stage acts called TEDTalks, but rather a TED University session. Still, it’s no less important and an idea worth spreading.
Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer. Previously, he was the manager of marketing editorial at CBS Interactive, delivering client solutions on BNET, ZDNet, and TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to Emerging Tech via Email alerts or RSS.
