Life means change

Green surface areas and plants …

… reinforce positive feelings, such as happiness and satisfaction.

… reduces stress both in our private and in our professional lives.

… improves our ability to concentrate and to meet challenges of any kind.

… boosts attention and mental capacities.

… encourages social interactions and relationships within one’s residential environment.

… enhance the healing process in hospitals as well as physical and health conditions in general.

 

We want to improve the conditions in which we are currently living. To do that, we need to change, and improve, the immediate environment of where we are living. Where others see gray surface areas and densely built-up areas that stand in the way of reaching this goal, we see potential. viridum can utilize this space to create living environments in which people can feel well and at ease. We use innovative and sustainable technology to bring about the (micro-)climate that humanity and nature deserve.

Increased standard of living for all human beings on earth by bringing together nature and innovative technology.

viridum is a creative and innovative system that can replicate the positive effects of nature by greenifying vertical and horizontal surface areas of any kind. Our smart and holistic revegetation system improves air quality, cleans and cools the air, reduces noise and air pollution, and makes a major contribution to the cityscape.

We are creating a healthy climate, natural well-being, and aesthetically pleasing living environments for people by means of innovative, smart, and holistic revegetation systems for vertical and horizontal surface areas.

Present

While the climate change concerns all of us, city dwellers are affected by an additional threat: Urban Heat Islands (UHI). Concrete buildings and other sealed-up surface areas have a higher heat storage capacity than natural surfaces. This leads to higher surrounding temperatures in certain parts of the cities. The densely-built up areas in cities exacerbate this situation because it leads to lower wind speed and air exchange. Thus, there is no possibility for the UHIs to cool down. Even during nights, cities cannot cool down because then the concrete buildings and sealed-up surfaces release the heat they have stored. This leads to an increase in so-called tropical nights: nights in which the temperature does not fall below 20°C.

All these factors cause the average temperature within cities to be at least 2°C higher than in rural areas. At UHIs, the difference can even be up to 11°C. While 2°C might not sound like much, it poses a great threat to our health. An increase in temperature of 1°C can already lead to an increase of the mortality rate by up to 16%.

The urban micro-climate is also negatively affected by other factors. Targeted measures to increase drainage in cities have made urban ground and soil a lot drier, which, in turn, makes the urban climate drier. This affects cities’ chemic milieu to such a great extent that certain plants cannot grow anymore. The development and expansion of traffic routes, accompanied by more intense traffic, leads to higher levels of pollution, which accelerates the climate change and poses an enormous threat to humanity. People with previous respiratory diseases, such as asthma or COPD, are hit especially had by these developments.

Another problem is the noise pollution within cities. Not only animals have to leave cities because it has become too loud for them, but humans feel the same way. The strain the high levels of noise takes on the mental health of humans can lead to unhappiness, illnesses, and depression. Many people have to flee to the countryside, even if it is only for a few hours, because they are craving calmness and tranquility.

To conclude, the ramifications of these factors are manifold and immense:

  • Tropical nights affect the sleep quality in a very negative way.
  • The higher-than-average temperatures lead to a higher number of diseases and illnesses, as well as food-related infections, such as salmonella.
  • Increasingly hot summers can lead to a spread of tropical diseases in central Europe.
  • People with pre-existing respiratory diseases will suffer especially hard.
  • The elderly and people with weak immune systems are likelier to succumb to a heat death. In less than 50 years, there will be 5000 to 8000 additional heat deaths in Germany, per year.

Our Future

One important aspect in the interaction between nature and mankind are the so-called “ecosystem services”. These services include all of the contributions that ecosystems make that we humans benefit from. An important example is the pollination of plants by bees. Without the ecosystem services, human life would not be possible. They filter the air we breathe, regulate the (micro-)climate, reduce noise and pollution, clean the wastewater, provide places for recovery and recreation etc. Thus, ecosystem services improve the lives of humans in many respects.

Especially cities need those services because they can regulate extreme temperatures, reduce the number and intensity of urban heat islands, and reduce noise and air pollution. To preserve these services within urban areas, revegetation measures are of the utmost importance, since green areas and forests are driven back and disappear from the cityscape because of urban development processes.

Instead of demolishing buildings and replacing them with parks and forests, already existing surface areas can be greenified. By planting vegetation of rooftops and building living walls, we can bring back these much-needed ecosystem services. Especially there, where they are needed the most: at heavily trafficked intersections, in the densely built-up city core, in industrial areas etc.

viridum provides exactly those ecosystem services that are needed the most in urban areas: clean and fresh air, a cool surrounding temperature, noise reduction, a beautiful cityscape, and places for recovery and recreation. Thus, our revegetation system can make important contributions to the physical and well-being of all citizens of a city. In addition, the effects of climate change are mitigated and cities become more attractive.

The benefits of revegetation systems are manifold:

  • They serve as local CO2-storage and thus rid the air of toxins and fine particles produced by traffic and industry.
  • Thanks to the evapotranspiration effect of plants (they are allowing water to vaporize), the surrounding air is cooled down, which significantly reduces urban heat islands.
  • By not reflecting sound waves, noise is reduced and dampened by the plants.
  • Our system contributes to the urban bio-diversity.
  • Revegetation systems protect the structure of buildings and other objects by sheltering them from direct sunlight, extreme temperatures, rain, and other forms of erosion.
  • They are aesthetically pleasing and thus contribute to an attractive cityscape.
  • Greenified places can serve as areas for recovery, recreation, and relaxation, reducing citizens’ stress levels.
  • By using rainwater for irrigation, they unburden the city’s sewage system.

References

[1] HAASE Dagmar, Urbane Ökosysteme. Weinheim 2014.
[2] HEINRICH Aliya, Klimawandel und urbaner Hitzeinseleffekt: Potenziale und Herausforderungen der Fassadenbegrünung – Handlungsempfehlungen für die Stadtplaner. Zürich 2019.
[3] LIEBERS Uta und WITT Christian, Stadtluft im Klimawandel – „Dusty and Hot“. In: Pneumonews 10 (1) 2018, S. 30-35.
[4] BRÄMER Rainer, Naturpsychologie – Wirkungen von Naturkontakten. abgerufen von link im April 2020.