Energy performance of living walls in commercial buildings

Building and construction industry is a major cause of environmental pollutions as it accounts for 30-40% of energy and natural resource consumptions on earth. It also contributes to 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable building practices can considerably reduce building's environmental impact in energy consumption. Covering a building envelope with green vegetation, such as green roof and green wall, is considered a sustainable construction practice, as green vegetation has a positive performance at energy savings. This paper discusses a comparative lifecycle analysis (LCA) of living walls. Energy consumption of the modular panel living wall materials in manufacturing process are evaluated with SimaPro, and compared with the energy savings of operational living walls. The results demonstrated that the modular panel system requires 3 years to balance the energy consumed in the manufacture process. However, the environmental performance of living walls is influenced by the types of materials and plants chosen for the systems, as well as the external factors, such as climate and building type.