Planting vegetation on the walls and roofs of city buildings, known as green walls and green roofs, is a great way to tackle common urban problems such as air pollution, the heat island effect, and the lack of greenery in city centres.
Lux Research has compiled a report called "Building-Integrated Vegetation: Redefining the Landscape or Chasing a Mirage?" which estimates that the building-integrated vegetation (BIV) industry could grow to be worth $7.7 billion by 2017, and cover an area of 204 million square metres.
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The installation of such large amounts of BIV will create "a $2 billion opportunity to suppliers of polymeric materials such as geosynthetic fabrics and waterproof membranes. Green walls will swell to a $680 million market, using $200 million worth of materials such as self-supporting polyurethane foam growth media."
As a result many cities around the developed world have been offering programs and creating mandates to incentivise people to invest in BIV. However, one of the main barriers to entry that the report identified is the installation cost; at "$300/m2 to $500/m2 for green roofs and $900/m2 to $1,100/m2 for green walls," neither are cheap, and the rate of the growth will really depend alost entirely on the state of the global economy.
By. James Burgess of Oilprice.com
James Burgess studied Business Management at the University of Nottingham. He has worked in property development, chartered surveying, marketing, law, and accounts. He has also… More