A living wall will indeed help you to achieve a BREEAM rating.  There are several things you can focus on using that will help you:

• Native species
• Pollinators
• Rainwater harvesting
• Recycled materials

Yes, rainwater harvesting can be used to irrigate a living wall, although the wall cannot be solely dependent on rainwater.  To integrate rainwater harvesting effectively you need to get your living wall partner involved early on.

A living wall that uses natural soil uses less water than most other substrates used in green walls.  Here’s an example of water usage per week in the winter:

• Sunny wall: 16.8 litres/m2/week
• Shady wall: 7.6 litres/m2/week

The only part of the living wall that will use energy on-going is the irrigation system.  This is entirely dependent on the design and irrigation system structure.  However, the electrical loading is minimal.

There are 6 key factors that can determine whether your living wall integration will be a failure or a success.  We detailed them all in this blog on What could go wrong with a living wall? 6 points to consider for your project, which you can read more about here.   

1. System choice
2. Plant selection
3. Substrate
4. Irrigation and water management
5. Maintenance
6. Ensuring no obstacles during planning, installation, and on-going maintenance.

For more detail under each point, please read the blog!

We often speak about adjusting the planting design for a living wall so it provides more value for biodiversity.  Whilst this is important to get the most out of your installation (if improving biodiversity is your purpose), the plants are only half the story.

Soil is hugely important for biodiversity, and enables you to reach the right biodiversity net gain score.  For the environmental success of any green infrastructure habitats, soil is key.  It allows for:

• Burrowing insects
• Solitary bees
• Provides water storage/buffer
• Fungal biodiversity
• Resilience against adverse conditions

Yes, how long a living wall lasts depends on the system used and the maintenance.  Living wall systems based on natural processes (for example using a natural planting medium so plants are growing in their natural habitat and go through the same processes as they would planted traditionally), are more resilient and with maintenance, can last forever as opposed to systems based on man-made substates.

Under a maintenance contract, a living wall will stay healthy for as long as you like.  Again, think of it like a garden.  If it’s well-cared for, it will continue to flourish in full health year after year.

Yes, living walls can be installed around windows.  As our system is modular, it makes it very simple to cut to shape.  For details or considerations when integrating around windows, take a look here (we put it all on one page).