A Fresh Air Store?

by Danny Summers

You may remember a few weeks ago, I shared a message titled "A Nature Store?" The overall idea was how much Garden Centers should position themselves as a vital part of nature and their audience should think of the Garden Center, their own garden, and the activity of gardening as an important part of their own health and wellness.

Coming out of winter, it is easy to attract your audience who have the internal human need for spring, its fresh new growth, its plants, flowers, and everything in the garden. Just the promise of spring helps to bridge the gap caused by "winter blues." And it is easy to recognize your Center is needed at this time of year. What I am sharing today may help you more at other times of the year. This past week I ran across a story titled:

A plant-filled home could help prevent infections, study finds

The news coverage is in The Week and under their "environmental news" section. It is based upon a study just released by the University of Victoria, BC Canada. As I read the article here's a few areas that seemed very important and something we could use to support future messaging:

A plant-filled home could actually help protect you from disease, including COVID-19, a new study has found.

"This is a very good proof-of-concept study on whether plants can help disinfect air," said Kristian Dubrawski, one of the study's co-authors. "Indoor plants could contribute to deactivation of pathogenic bacteria and viruses, such as airborne COVID-19 in homes and workplaces."

Plants produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) during photosynthesis which "contributes to atmospheric cleansing," per the report. The chemical is often used in disinfectants and when bleaching hair, writes British newspaper inews.co.uk.

"If evidence like this grows, then low-cost behavior, like buying more plants, would likely be something that people would much more be willing to do than some other things, like mask-wearing or social distancing," remarked Simon Williams of Swansea University.

When you follow the link to the actual study here's a statement that seems to be an important one:

“Plants play a key role in air quality and biogeochemical cycles 1,2, although any role of exogenous hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) produced by plants has yet to be considered. H2O2 contributes to atmospheric cleansing as a reservoir for hydroxyl radicals 3, and as an oxidant of organic and biological contaminants.”

Just as we experienced in Florence Williams' The Nature Fix presentation and many of you were listening for key words and ideas you could build messaging around, this too should be added to your library of how a plant-filled home, work space and life in general, can be important for our health and well-being.

If you missed "The Nature Fix" experience, Group Clients can login to The Group WebSystem and navigate to the Clients-Only menu and scroll down to the Training: The Nature Fix to watch all three recorded sessions.

As you read the entire coverage of this story and even the research study report itself HERE, can you see why your Center should be...

A Fresh Air Store?