Media and social impact valuation of a living wall: The case study of the Sagrado Corazon hospital in Seville (Spain)

Vertical greening systems have increased in popularity during the last years due to their experienced added ecological and aesthetic value for current clients. The use of living walls is in line with a service sector focusing on environmental consciousness. Still, scientific evidence is lacking regarding the multiple benefits of LW. There is also a lingering fear of high installation and maintenance costs. Therefore, it is important to assess the intangible benefits that increase the value of living walls and, hence, of the place in which they are installed. The main objective of this work is the valuation of the returns obtained because of the publicity related to a living wall installed in the ‘Quirónsalud Sagrado Corazón’ Hospital in Seville (Spain) and the assessment of the public’s perception towards it. The investment that the hospital would have made in order to obtain a similar media impact has been estimated. The living wall proved to be very profitable in terms of publicity as the installation costs were recovered six times over. Also, the attitude towards the presence of such a greening system in the premises was assessed. To do so, 555 questionnaires were handed out face-to-face to patients, visitors and workers present at the hospital. Most participants concurred that the living wall induced positive reactions and improved their psychological well-being. Therefore, they completely agreed with the investment made by the hospital on such a vertical greening system.