Naava<\/a>, a Finnish company specialized in green walls that produce outdoor air for indoor environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cFrom an evolutionary and biological point of view, we are not meant to\u00a0spend\u00a0our lives inside concrete boxes \u2013\u00a0and that\u2019s what most office spaces are like. Whether we humans\u00a0know\u00a0it or not, there\u2019s an in-built need in us to be in the middle of nature. In Western societies \u2013 due to things like increased hygiene level and biodiversity loss \u2013\u00a0our natural exposure to environmental microbes has decreased. This is seen as one of the major reasons for the rise of autoimmune diseases and allergies,\u201d\u00a0says\u00a0Aki Soudunsaari, a health-related serial entrepreneur and co-founder at Naava.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Study subjects in the test group were exposed to green walls only at the office during their workdays. Skin and blood samples were collected three times from both experimental and control group participants to monitor the impact of the green walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Providing healthier workspaces with good ventilation has been a priority for companies after the pandemic. However, excessive sanitization of spaces and surfaces can also have an adverse effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cScience has told us that children should be in daily contact with microbes via dirt and soil to boost their immune systems\u2014and it\u2019s no different for adults. Isolating ourselves completely from positive microbes will only harm our health and well-being. Sanitization serves an important function in disease prevention and employee safety, but most workspaces have gone overboard with sterilization via chemicals,\u201d\u00a0points out\u00a0Soudunsaari\u00a0who founded Naava after he fell ill due to poor indoor air quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe results indicate that we can support people\u2019s health with relatively easy nature-based solutions. However, urban societies need, in addition to these types of solutions, broader societal changes to maintain and increase healthy and useful contact with nature,\u201d\u00a0says\u00a0Marja Roslund, research scientist at Luke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having grown up in Lapland, surrounded by some of the most pristine wilderness in the world, Soudunsaari hopes that more people recognize humanity as a species that needs exposure to nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur goal should be to flow in tandem with nature, not against it,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A study by Finnish scientists shows that\u00a0air-circulating\u00a0indoor green walls can improve employees\u2019 health.\u00a0Conducted as part of the\u00a0ADELE 2\u00a0(Immune Defence and Living Environment) project between\u00a0Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke)\u00a0and two major Finnish universities, the study is the first of its kind linking exposure to living green walls with improved skin integrity and enhanced immunity against pathogens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Finnish Study: Indoor Green Walls Can Improve Occupants\u2019 Health @Breathenaava ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[201],"tags":[9436,5932,2032,44112,1866,25094,44111],"ppma_author":[48795],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Finnish Study: Indoor Green Walls Can Improve Occupants' Health - retrofit<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n