Biophilic Design

Biophilic design uses the human connection to nature (“biophilia”) to connect people more closely to nature in buildings including homes, workplaces, businesses, public facilities, schools, hospitals, and more. Biophilic-designed buildings incorporate indoor plants, interior landscaping, natural lighting, fresh air ventilation, and other elements to create a healthier environment to support human health and wellbeing.

There are 24 individual qualities of biophilic design. They include:

  • Direct experience: contact with green elements such as plants, views of nature, water, and natural airflow.
  • Indirect experience: the use of natural materials such as wood or natural fabrics like cotton and wool; exposure to images of nature in artwork; and the use of natural shapes and forms.
  • Experience of space and place: How is your own cultural and ecological attachment to a particular indoor area affected?

Multiple studies show a positive relationship between the presence of nature in the workplace and employee wellness and productivity. The design think tank Human Spaces reports employees working in environments with natural elements like plants and sunlight have a 15 percent higher level of well-being. This translates into a six percent increase in productivity and a 15 percent increase in creativity.

Think about what a six percent efficiency increase would mean in your business. Imagine one creative idea that turns into the next Tesla, Bitcoin, or even Scrub Daddy (look it up). What would you be willing to invest in getting there?

There are several simple design changes easily made in workspaces. The easiest and most cost-efficient way is the addition of plants into your environment. This action also gets building owners and facilities managers thinking big picture about the amount of space people have to work in or the best way to make buildings safer and healthier. Safety, health, and worker productivity all go together.

Natural light, plants and vegetation, living walls, natural textures and materials, and views of nature will all provide the positive impact employers need to hire and keep their employees. And it can all be done for less than the cost of a cup of coffee per employee daily.

Plants Add Finishing Touch To Luxury Living In La Jolla

| June 15, 2022 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping
Good Earth Plant Company works most often on larger commercial projects in office buildings, hotels, restaurants, technology and biotech properties, shopping centers, and retail businesses. When we get the opportunity to work on a residential project, it’s a treat and a special responsibility. We recently completed our second project for luxury homebuilder Blue Heron Homes. Even their name tells you something about this Las Vegas-based builder. It chose Blue Heron because it “represents something beautiful and unexpected, yet organic and naturally occurring.” Blue Heron designs home in harmony with the environment. Blue Heron called on us for plantscaping design services adding plants to a brand-new oceanfront home in La Jolla.… Read More

New Thoughts for 2022 About The Nature of the Post-Pandemic Workplace

| March 23, 2022 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Awards & Achievements, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing
Where would YOU rathr work? Our Second Edition white paper is optimistic about the future of the American office. Download your copy free! Post-pandemic workplace
The modern American office is now competing with the work from home (WFH) environment. Employees are voting with their feet for more flexibility in their lives. The days of the open office and cubicle farms are over. How should the workplace evolve? It was time for my colleagues and me with Silverado Roundtable to dig deep to offer human resources professionals, facilities managers, and the design community some tools to address the post-pandemic reality. We present The Nature of the Post-Pandemic Workplace – Second Edition. I never thought I’d write ONE white paper. Now I’ve written two! How did we get here?… Read More

Celebrating Black Plant Entrepreneurs

| February 2, 2022 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Awards & Achievements, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ShopDaniG black plant entrepreneurs
It’s important to us at Good Earth Plant Company to use our platform to celebrate the contributions of Black Americans to horticulture and gardening during Black History Month 2022. Last year’s blog post on Black agriculture pioneers was one of our most well-read posts in 2021. Thank you! If you didn’t get a chance to read about Tuskegee University pioneers Dr. George Washington Carver and Dr. Booker T. Whatley, Frederick McKinley, Marie Clark Taylor, Abra Lee, and Ron Finley, you might consider taking a few minutes to get acquainted with these impressive people. But we barely scratched the surface. There are many more Black gardeners, designers, and plant stylists currently making news and creating a unique plant culture that’s flourishing.… Read More

Pantone 2022 Color of the Year Is Very Peri

| January 5, 2022 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Awards & Achievements, Biophilic Design
Feeling Very Peri! It's the 2022 Pantone Color of the Year. Photo: Jim Mumford
At Good Earth Plant Company, we look forward to the annual announcement of the Pantone Color of the Year. It’s true! And we know you do, too. We get a massive response when our review and critique of the annual announcement is posted. Everyone has an opinion about color. Every color creates different emotions and gives us all the feels: happy, sad, excited, calm, even hungry or relaxed. Our reactions have roots in psychological effects, biological conditioning, and cultural imprinting. Color is also tied to memory. Color helps the brain store and process images more efficiently than black or white. We remember colorful images better.… Read More

Green TV Time: Jim Mumford on KLCS-TV Los Angeles

| December 1, 2021 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Indoor Plants, Living Walls, Media Coverage, Nature and Wellbeing
Looking over the KLCS camera crew's shoulder at the shot. Photo: Good Earth Plant Company
We’ve been sitting on this news for months. Just like kids at Christmas, the November 10 air date finally arrived for Good Earth Plant Company’s feature stories, and interviews on KLCS-TV show “Everybody with Angela Williamson.” KLCS -TV is a multiple Emmy Award-winning noncommercial PBS affiliate station, broadcasting to more than 15 million viewers in Los Angeles and Southern California. Eight million households per month, and one out of every 10 TV viewers in Southern California, watch KLCS. So you can imagine the excitement level about spreading the message about Good Earth’s mission to enrich peoples’ lives with plants. When KLCS host and producer Dr.… Read More

Your Top Questions About Biophilic Design Answered

| November 17, 2021 | Categories: Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants
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The coronavirus pandemic made us more aware of creating healthier indoor spaces, especially in the workplace. Employers are starting to pay attention. “The Great Resignation” has fired up their interest in making workplaces safe and inviting. I’ve read the words “biophilia” and “biophilic design” in the news and on websites more than ever before in the last 18 months. It’s mentioned in articles like this one, and this one, and even this one. Good Earth Plant Company does its part by enriching peoples’ lives with plants and using our award-winning blog to inform our readers about the principles of biophilia and biophilic design.… Read More

Take A Virtual Tour of the Good Earth Plant Company’s New Biophilic Warehouse

| November 3, 2021 | Categories: Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Good Earth Plant Company
Take a virtual tour of our brand new biophilic warehouse at Good Earth Plant Company.
After more than four decades, Good Earth Plant Company has a brand new 2,000 square foot working warehouse and workshop facility. It’s been on our wish list since we moved to our Kearny Mesa property in 1994. When I bought the property 18 years ago, there was a large, three-sided mechanic’s shed. It was torn down in 2007. Since that time, we used the old concrete floor as a large patio and created a “living lab” with examples of living walls. This is where the new warehouse sits.  We relocated our living walls and they continue to thrive. We’ll give you a tour in a future blog post.… Read More

Living Walls Aren’t Built In A Day

| October 21, 2021 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilic Design, Case Studies, Living Walls
Rock on, Joe! Joe Benedetti shows off a newly installed living wall. Photo: Good Earth Plant Companyv
Some people call them green walls, others call them plant walls or live walls, and we also hear them called vertical gardens. Some versions are edible walls. Some are inside, some are outside. Good Earth Plant Company refers to these beautiful displays of nature by their most common name: living walls. We recently attempted to count the number of living walls we’ve installed over the past 15 years. We stopped counting at 200. They range in size from small items that resemble traditional works of art to living walls on a massive scale. Our tallest? The living wall on the exterior of the Loews Santa Monica Hotel (80 feet).… Read More

Pay Attention To The Power of Plants at Work

| October 6, 2021 | Categories: Architecture and Design, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Indoor Plants, Nature and Wellbeing, Plantscaping
We’ve learned some hard lessons thanks to the coronavirus pandemic about how much our health and wellbeing is governed by our environment inside our homes, workplaces, schools, public facilities, and other buildings like stores and movie theaters. Anything we can do to improve the quality of our indoor environment needs to be a priority. Our surroundings make such a difference in our health because people in industrialized countries including the U.S. spend more than 90% of their time indoors. It makes me even more relentless about the work we do at Good Earth Plant Company to improve indoor environments by enriching peoples’ lives with plants, by promoting biophilic design and the WELL Building Standard, and by talking about this with you – and as many other people I can get to pay attention!… Read More

Time to Celebrate: It’s National Indoor Plant Week

| September 10, 2021 | Categories: Biophilic Design, Good Earth Plant Company Tips, Indoor Plants, Plantscaping
She's got the right attitude for National Indoor Plant Week 2021! Photo: Mikhail Nilov/Pexels
Plant lovers everywhere, get ready to party – the week of  September 20, 2021, is National Indoor Plant Week. We’re giving you advanced notice! It is celebrated the third full week of September every year. I get it, there are a whole lot of these observations. One website claims there are 1,500 of them – that’s a LOT for 365 days and 52 weeks. During the same week, it’s also National Singles Week, National Farm Animals Week, and National Eczema Week. Your indoor plants deserve a celebration. All they want to do is grow and keep you happier and healthier. They don’t judge you and they don’t have to worry about social distancing either (how lucky!).… Read More