When GreenCollar started planning on moving into sustainable and “green” premises, we decided that having plants around the office and on the outside terrace was important. But then I found myself thinking more and more about the actual incentives for business to go green from a cost/ benefit point of view.

The latest on this comes topic comes from a US study, published in the February 2008 issue of the journal HortScience. It details that people working in offices with plants and window views feel better about their work compared to those in windowless offices. When asked about their overall life quality, 82 percent of people who work with plants and windows around said they felt “content” or “very happy.”

Only 69 percent of those who work with plants but without windows, and 60 percent of those who have windows but no plants said they felt this way. The group of people who work without plants or windows were the most dissatisfied, with only 58 percent of them saying that overall they were “content” or “very happy.” While no one who works with plants, windows, or both reported they felt “miserable,” 0.8 percent of those who work in offices devoid of either said they were “miserable.”

Green Plants for www.Green-Buildings.org states that plants offer a means to decrease stress while enhancing productivity by 12 percent. They lower operations and maintenance costs while contributing to ‘Green Building’ considerations. And, GPGB adds, if strategically placed plants quiet down an office, helping reduce distractions. Plants also reduce businesses’ bottom line savings on mounting sick leave expenses.

So, greenery in the workplace helps to attract, retain and enhance attitude of today’s selective employees. According to GPGB’s research, the dramatic aesthetic value inherent in indoor landscaping has continued to be the number one return on interior plant investments.

Those are very strong reasons for every employer to consider investing in a greener work space, quite literally. For myself I can see the difference in our new office, with its plant walls and other greenery. I look forward to work now — more so than before. Suddenly having a coffee is actually nicer in my work space than on a busy city street.