Reduce Office Noise with Live Plants, Green Living Walls | Natura®

The modern office has become a noisy, distracting environment with increasing popularity of the open plan office. Sound has a heavy impact on our productivity from a cognitive, psychological and behavioral standpoint that can distract and disengage employees from moments to minutes that all adds up to a costly problem.

Shhhhh…sit back in your chair, close your eyes, take a deep breath and exhale slowly…you hear all that?

Coworker’s chairs squeaking and straining under stress of their occupants, phones ringing about, muffled crowd chatter in the distance intermingling with various other working sounds down the hall. Coughs, sniffles and sneezes from around the corner, typing and keyboard pounding from your neighbor, the copy machine pacing back and forth, a stapler firing but releasing no staples, the noisy sequence of the espresso machine brewing up a cup of caffeine, or the relentless hollow sound of air exhausting through the ventilation system.

Oh the tranquility of interior office acoustics! Chances are your working space is far from silent.

Uncontrolled noise in an office environment can wreak havoc on your employees and customers alike.

Office noise is one of the most commonly complained about office issues with 80% of workers stating that they are frequently distracted by it. We can only assume the remaining 20% are suffering in silence! What level of productivity can you maintain if you are unable to concentrate, stay focused and on task?

All this noise is created and manipulated as sound waves travel and bounce off rigid surfaces such as walls, ceilings, floors and other hard objects in the room. Sound transmissions from internal, external and adjacent sources are huge distractions in our cramped office environments and can be seemingly difficult to control. But nature has an answer.

Benefits of Plants in the Workplace

Plants have an acoustical benefit that insulate against noise, sound vibrations and sound penetration.

The biomass of indoor office plants has the ability to absorb echo and dampen reverberations that collect when sound waves reflect from flat surfaces.

By incorporating office plants in your working space you can effectively alter the environmental acoustics in your office by absorbing and diffusing noise that will improve the productivity and moral of your workforce all the way to the bottom line.

Click here for a comprehensive overview of Indoor Plant Benefits

Benefits of Green Living Walls

One of the great benefits of Green Living Walls is sound control. This innovative plant design hangs on your wall(s), which can add an aesthetic and can be used as a noise barrier in an acoustically loud space. This can be very important in both indoor and outdoor spaces, particularly in noisy urban areas.

Learn more about the benefits of Green Living Walls in this free guide.