Mr. Green

A few days before I read the WHO report on the air quality of many cities in the world, I came up with an interesting talk on www.ted.com entitled How to Grow Fresh Air, by researcher Kamal Meattle.  This Indian gentleman starts his talk saying that, due to its poor quality, he became allergic  to New Delhi ‘s air and his lung capacity went down to 70 percent.

After some research, he discovered that there are three very common plants which, placed inside our homes and offices, are basically capable of absorbing the contaminants in the air and converting them into oxygen, thus purifying the air that we breathe and helping us to stay healthy. The result of his research is the Paharpur Business Centre, considered by the Government of India as one of the healthiest buildings in New Delhi.

These wonderful three plants that Mr. Meattle was talking about are Areca palm (Dypsis lutescens), mother-in-law’s tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata), and money plant (Epipremnum aureum). As it happens, I had a big pot full of mother-in-law’s tongue, but not Areca palm or money plant. And, since I had being noticing that the air quality in the city where I live is so poor, I was so excited with this piece of information that I ran to Home Depot and bought me a pair of Areca palms, to begin with.

Rodolfo and I planted them in their new natural clay pots and put them in the living room, where they look just gorgeous; we also placed a pair of mother-in-law’s tongue plants in the bedroom. I just love the way my house looks with these new green additions, but, most importantly, I love to know that these good creatures will be give us cleaner air.

This is only the beginning, because, as Mr. Meattle suggests, to get the best results, there has to be about four plants of each of these varieties (12 in total) for every person – this means that we have to have at least 24 plants inside our house! And you know? I love the idea.

In fact, I was so excited with what I have learned from Mr Kamal Meattle that I decided to put a few plants in my own office, where there is absolutely no fresh air because it’s in the basement. I got the plants from the garden of a house nearby and from the garden outside of our building. And since I didn’t have any pots and I didn’t want to wait for another day, it occurred to me that I could reuse the plastic containers for the cds that my colleague uses. The result was just wonderful.

I was so happy that I talked about all this to the big boss at the office, thinking that he would appreciate this idea because he is also a nature lover. He liked it so much that he immediately appointed me as the project leader in charge of turning our building green, with plants everywhere! Wow, I didn’t expect this, and still I’m not sure how I’m going to complete this task…  but I know I’ll do it, with a little help from a couple of my colleagues. Soon our building will be greener that ever, yes sir!