Most buildings’ interiors lack color, and often, life. Plants are a natural solution to both of these problems, as well as a couple of others.

Think about the number of gray office buildings that feel almost entirely dead. The air is stale, and the only color comes from the occasional light-up of lights in a fire alarm. 

Plants fix this. They replace old carbon dioxide with fresh, new oxygen. They also provide color and create visual interest, something that offices almost always lack.

People are happier when they don’t feel like they’re living a stale life, something that is prone to happen when made to sit for hours on end within an uninteresting cubicle of a gray.

Again, plants help with this. They won’t fix the problem entirely, but they will help create a more interesting office space that feels alive, which is a contributing factor to feelings of stagnation.

When people are happy, they don’t just work harder, they want to work harder. They value the things that are good to them. They want to see them succeed.

This same logic applies to schools. If students (and even teachers) are given options to spruce up the place where they spend most of their time, they will value it more, which leads to both students and teachers working harder.

It’s a win-win-win. Students get a livelier space to learn, teachers get a livelier space to work, and administration gets to rest easy with the knowledge that both students and teachers not only work hard, but want to work hard, because they care.

And bonus points if the people who spend time in the space get to choose which plants go where. This creates an attachment, which creates more value, which creates means people care more, which all leads back to people being more productive.

People care about the things that care about them. Show them that you care.