GREENE N GOOODS
Houseplants
with a Purpose
In May 2008, Costa Farms launched a public service campaign,
“O
2
for You: Houseplants with a Purpose,” in New York City to pro-
mote the benefi ts of healthy living with houseplants.
“This gift of fresh air is the beginning of the ‘O
2
for You’ public
service campaign,” Jose Smith, Costa Farms CEO, says. “We want
people to understand the health benefi ts of indoor plants just as
they do with blueberries and antioxidants. We should be concerned
equally about the indoor environment as we are with the outdoors.
Through this campaign, we aim to raise awareness about the role of
houseplants in helping to purify our indoor air.”
Costa partnered with nonprofi ts and donated hundreds of peace
lilies (one of the best air purifi ers!) to new moms in prestigious hos-
pitals and communities:
Earth Day (New York City)
The Clean Air Council (Philadelphia)
Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots (Boston and Chicago)
You might consider listing the nonprofi t partnerships for this
campaign and their websites for customer information. You can also
capitalize on Costa’s online resources — including their website,
YouTube videos and “spiders” — which you can use on your own
website and blog, as well as at the point of purchase:
• media (television and print)
• video documentation of all the campaigns (YouTube)
• embedding on social media sites such as Twitter
and Facebook
• Costa’s dedicated site:
www.o2foryou.org
• college ambassador program
When considering indoor plants, think about what Dr. Wolverton
says: “Green, living plants make our planet habitable. Isolating
ourselves indoors without bringing nature in with us produces an
unhealthy environment. We should all breathe easier knowing our
beautiful houseplants are working hard to keep us healthy!”
For more information, visit
www.o2foryou.org.
tobacco smoke. So, if you have a customer who smokes, suggest that she
purchase some ferns.
“Indoor plants help purge the air of airborne toxins with the same
effi ciency as the rainforest in our biosphere,” Wolverton says.
Tip: Mention examples of common products like paints, tobacco
smoke, synthetic upholstery, printer inks and even carpets that emit
noxious gases — and that plants fi lter.
Houseplants can remove up to 87 percent of airborne toxic gases
emitted from these products including the degreasing solvent trichlo-
roethylene (TCE), which can get trapped in airtight buildings and
accumulate over time.
They Do That?
Wolverton discovered, through his more than 30 years of research as
an environmental scientist with NASA and Wolverton Environmental
Services, that indoor plants and their root microbes are destined to play
a major role in improving indoor air quality in homes and buildings.
Houseplants clean the air by absorbing toxins into the root zone, where
they’re turned into nutrients for the plants. “Good” microbes found natu-
rally in and around plant roots also play an integral role in breaking trapped
chemicals down into a source of food for themselves and the plant.
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