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Vendor Spotlight: Greenology

The art and science of making a greener world in an urban space

You’ve heard of gardeners. You might even have heard of landscapers. But have you ever heard of urban greening specialists? They’re like gardeners on steroids, using the power of both art and science to not just pretty up the urbanscape, but to improve the quality of life psychologically, emotionally, and even financially too.

Read on to find out why they love greening places up and why you should too.

Who they are

Photo Credit : Greenology

The Founder

A graduate with BSc degree in Botany; former curator of horticulture at the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari, and Changi Airport; lecturer at NUS for the Landscape Architecture Programme; and founder and consultant of Greenology; Veera Sekaran lives and breathes green wherever he goes. Also known as the plant whisperer, he’s always looking for ways to bring more greenery into the urban environment.

Photo Credit : Greenology

The Company

Founded in 2008, Greenology is among the pioneers of sustainability. Just to be clear, they aren’t landscapers. They’re urban greening specialists who aren’t just about the art of making green spaces but also the science of it. In the company, these urban greening specialists are better known as Greenologists. Their job is all about bringing people closer to nature so that they can interact and appreciate it; about bringing ecosystems back into the environment, and bringing back the greenery via a holistic solution in the greening space.

Photo Credit : Greenology

Greenologists

Sure, you’ve got the usual suspects of passionate botanists and horticulturists, but Greenology is also home to engineers, designers, and anyone who loves nature. These are the men and women who’re driven by a green conscience and desire to increase awareness and adoption of urban greening practices. They’re not afraid to get their hands in the dirt or experiment. After all, that’s how most of the products and services they have are all designed and developed in-house. Nothing off the shelf.

Greenology’s Philosophy

It’s all about reconciling nature, people, and cities through urban greening solutions and resilient urban environments. In most cases, it involves transforming urban spaces into living, thriving habitats and eco-systems.

Naturally, they’re committed to being sustainable. As such, most of their products and services offered use recycled materials and their systems have no-frills, are fuss-free, and are water- and energy-efficient. Got to keep that carbon footprint extra small.

In addition to that, Greenology isn’t just committed to giving back to nature, but also to the society around it. They undertake voluntary work with the local community and environmental organisations, and make relevant donations to seek to offset carbon emissions from their activities.

What they do

Urban Greening

Greenology specialises in bringing green and lush nature into homes, offices, or any other built environment. These include:

Photo Credit : Greenology

Greenology Vertical Greenery (GVG)

The flagship product of Greenology, the GVG allows you turn just about any built vertical surface into a veritable garden/work of natural art.

Using proprietary technology developed in Singapore, it’s one of the slimmest vertical system in the market. On top of the fact that it weighs in at 25kg with plants, the GVG system can be mounted anywhere without taking up too much space or overburdening physical structures.

This system has been tried and tested to support over 600 species of plants, thanks to Gnanofibre (another proprietary Greenology tech) which helps retain moisture and nutrients for the plants.

Speaking of moisture, the GVG features a drip irrigation system. It maximises water usage with very little intervention required.

Photo Credit : Greenology

Mosscapes

Someone with a brilliant and artistic mind decided that moss would make a great palette for art and created Mosscapes. Nature and art come together as bespoke masterpieces that’ll not only be the centerpiece of any room it’s in, but also serve to absorb noise to enhance calm and serenity.

Extremely low-maintenance, it’ll only need the occasional misting to keep it nice and supple.

Green Fins and Tubes

If you don’t want a wall of green, planter fins and tubes are an excellent alternative. Hung from ceilings or overhead structures, individually, in clusters, or as a curtain, these offer the versatility to design the layout of your greenery.

Interiorscapes

Together with your architect or interior designer, Greenology can help make an indoor garden in your office or home a reality.

As all the plants are hydroculture in nature, which is more suitable for indoor environments, you’ll enjoy reduced pests and maintenance for plants.

Rooftop Gardens (Edible/Ornamental)

Rooftops have the benefit of sunlight and rain while being inaccessible by feral cats, rats and other flightless predators. The perfect spot for vegetable and herb gardens. At your request, Greenology can assess your rooftop and advise on the best way to maximise the area and ideal crops to cultivate.

Photo Credit : Greenology

Green-roof

Urban heat is a common challenge in cities. Enter green roofs – an important part of keeping temperatures down for building’s inhabitants below. Greenology’s lightweight, drought-resistant green roofs, with varying plant species, are perfect for any rooftop.

In-house LED Grow Lights

Our in-house grow lights are proprietary in nature, with light wavelengths optimised for plant growth.

Consultancy in Agri-tech, Green-tech and landscape designing

From farming to sustainable greening to designing, Greenology offers consultancy for all your needs.

Photo Credit : Greenology

Everything green is grown

All plants used in Greenology’s products have been grown or derived from plants. If you can have the real thing, why settle for plastic ones instead?

What makes them special

Building Protection: Increases the integrity and durability of a building by protecting the exterior from strong wind, corrosive acid rain and harmful UV radiation. The insulating layer of greenery reduces the range of temperature variation of the building envelope, thus reducing expansion and contraction of building material which can cause fractures and cracks.

Sound Abatement: Absorbs the echo of noise bouncing off hard surfaces, reducing noise pollution by up to 35 decibels.

Air Purification: Reduces carbon dioxide and increases oxygen through photosynthesis. It also converts toxic chemicals into less harmful by-products, and sequesters heavy metals. According to research by NASA, leaves of indoor plants can remove carbon monoxide, as well as formaldehyde produced by many household products. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), trichloroethene (TCE), benzene, toluene, xylene, and more can be removed by the plant roots, or be degraded and removed by microorganisms living near the roots.

Reduction in Energy Cost: Cities are generally several degrees warmer compared to suburbs in the same geographical region because of the lack of natural vegetation. The greater use of cooling systems in turn emits more heated air into the surroundings.

Green walls act as a good insulating layer on the wall surface, reducing temperature fluctuations by 50%. This results in lower energy costs as less energy is required to cool the building.

Stress Relief: There is a significant positive relationship between people’s access to a green environment and their psychological well-being. Staring at greenery for 15 minutes can reduce mental and physical stress by up to 60%. A study done across 16 countries on 7,600 employees showed that employees in work environments with natural elements including sunlight and greenery were on average 6% more productive, 15% more creative, and their measured level of well-being was about 15% higher.

Increased Biodiversity: Green walls can play an important role in bringing back biodiversity into our urban spaces, and helping to sustain ecosystems. They can act as resting stops, sources of energy, and habitats for pollinators, invertebrates and other organisms. At Greenology, we use a variety of native and locally-adapted plants on our walls, transforming them into mini ecosystems which attract and support beneficial organisms such as butterflies and birds whose habitats have been displaced by urbanisation.

How they impact the community

Naturally Green

As an advocate for greener urbanscapes, Greenology does not believe in using artificial plants. In addition, when it comes to material sourcing and system design, they ensure that it works and can stand the test of time to reduce material and water wastage, ensuring sustainability in the long run.

The Community

Veera, the founder of Greenology, having come from a poor background, is a firm believer in giving back to the community. Amongst the works done include:

recently installing edible gardens for the migrant worker community;
working with Apex Harmony to provide a space for their residents with dementia to do work with greenery;
supporting the Yellow Ribbon Project in reintegrating ex-offenders back into society;
collaborating with the Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises (SCORE) by employing ex-offenders in a bid to help them reintegrate into society and pick up lifelong skills; and
working with the Singapore Association of Mental Health (SAMH) to explore ways that horticulture can help in rehabilitation, and empowering their rehabilitated clients with purposeful employment with the goal to independent living