22nd October 2014 – Plants in your office could promote health. Studies carried out since the 1980’s have conclusively proved that indoor plants are able to reduce the level of chemical compounds in the air.

The leaves, stems and roots all work together with the micro-organisms that live in the soil to carry out this cleansing process, helping to make offices less polluted. Pollution is often a cause for sickness. Lower the pollution then it stands to reason that the sickness level should also lower. Office plants are therefore natural air purifiers.

Plants were around at the time of our evolution and form part of the ecosystem in which we evolved. Over the last 10,000 years man has not had any real major biological, physical or genetic developments, however our living environments have dramatically altered especially over the later years. Urbanisation has changed many of our lives especially in the Western World. During this urbanisation it appears that we have lost a lot of our ties with nature and the natural world. Where as once we spent the majority of our time surrounded by nature and all things natural, now we seem to spend a high proportion of our time surrounded by artificial matter.

Many studies have found that our urbanised lifestyles can often lead to higher stress levels and depression. Office jobs often mean that we will tot up anywhere between 80 – 90% of our time in being in enclosed buildings.  We are therefore spending most of our time breathing in polluted air. Not only can plants with in the office help us health wise, they also add something natural for us to identify with, as well as adding colour and visual content.

Companies often look at plants as being an expenditure that they can do without with, yet studies have proved that plants within the office can actually save companies thousands. Absence levels are a major non-productive overhead for companies and plants have been proven to lower this by reducing fatigue, stress, dry throats, headaches, coughs and dry skin. Adding large foliage surface plants to an office will probably see the company reap the best returns.

If you are worried about maintaining your plants then why not ask your contract cleaning firm to add it to their job list.  If you do not have a contract cleaning firm for your office then contact us now on 0800 6891795 to obtain a quote.