OFS and GrowUp Greenwalls partner on living wall planter

OFS Partners with GrowUp Greenwalls

by Aaron Estabrook

GrowUp Greenwalls and OFS have announced a partnership to streamline the integration of spaces with biophilic design, sustainability, and vertical gardens. OFS is the first official distributor of the GrowUp Freedom Series, providing more people with more access to the positive benefits of adding natural elements to indoor spaces.

“Our new partnership with GrowUp Greenwalls gives us the opportunity to work with a truly forward-thinking company,” said Molly Menke, director of marketing at OFS. “By incorporating biophilia into office design, we are actively and passively supporting the well-being of people. We simply want people to feel good when most of their day is spent inside.”

GrowUp Greenwalls integrates eco-friendly technologies with biophilic design, providing highly flexible, low-maintenance living walls. The Freedom Series green walls were developed as a simple, pre-built system for live plants in the office. Spaces with biophilic design are shown to have a therapeutic effect (37% lowered tension and anxiety levels), reducing fatigue by 38% and increasing creativity and efficiency by 15% - source Green Plants for Green Buildings Green walls are an innovative biophilic design feature, which provides many health, wellness, and climate benefits such as:

  • Create cooler microclimates
  • Decrease ambient temperature 
  • Improve local air quality
  • Reduce CO2 and noise levels
  • Contribute to urban biodiversity.

“Through our premiere partnership with OFS, we can add a touch of biophilia to new places and create more sustainable spaces,” said Grant Leishman, CEO and Founder at GrowUp Greenwalls. “Living walls are an integral part of creating an open, brighter environment and allow people to experience the benefits of live plants in the office.”

As part of its mission to support employees and visitors in their journey to wellness, OFS recently became WELL Platinum Certified. WELL is the premier building standard to focus on enhancing people's health and wellness through the buildings where we live, work, and play. Platinum certification is the highest designation a project can receive. The company's 49,000 square-foot headquarters is the first in Indiana to receive the leading health and wellness certification. With natural light and biophilic design, the OFS campus provides comfortable and bright workspaces with live natural elements, including a two-story living green wall.

“With our WELL Platinum Certified building, we experience the benefits of sustainable building design and biophilia every day,” said Jarod Brames, director of sustainability at OFS. . “We know these features are positively shaping our people and spaces. Our partnership with GrowUp Greenwalls gives us the opportunity to further influence the sustainability of places outside of our own building headquarters.”

GrowUp Greenwalls can contribute to several WELLv2 concepts, including Mind, Movement, and Air.

  • MIND: Green walls directly contribute to WELLv2 features M02, M07, and M09 within the Mind Concept by providing indoor access to nature and natural materials. The self-contained systems and ease of installation allow projects to provide direct line of sight to the plants in a variety of interior layouts.
  • MOVEMENT: Directly contributing to feature V03 of the Movement Concept, green walls incorporate natural design elements into the circulation network, promoting regular movement throughout the building.
  • AIR: Indirectly, green walls contribute to the Air Concept by utilizing plants that absorb CO2 and indoor air contaminants, increasing air quality within any space.

About GrowUp Greenwalls: 

Founded in 2017, GrowUp Greenwalls is headquartered in Vista, California and integrates eco-friendly technologies with biophilic design. GrowUp Greenwalls specializes in designing and developing vertical gardens and custom living walls. GrowUp Greenwalls are the most flexible living walls available. They are developed for professional installers, and through careful innovation have been made accessible to the home market and to smaller spaces. The system is robust enough to be trusted in any corporate indoor environment where the modular components are designed to avoid any risks associated with watering the plants. The honeycomb pot design and the modular nature of the product allows it to be put to use in any number of configurations.

About OFS:

OFS is a family-owned contract furniture manufacturer dedicated to crafting experiences and products that contribute to places where people want to be. Founded in 1937, OFS provides furniture and logistics solutions for office, healthcare, education, lifestyle, hospitality, government, and home office markets worldwide, offering seating, tables, casegoods, and open plan products. The brands, Carolina and Bryan Ashley are OFS companies. OFS is based in Huntingburg, Indiana.