Nature has its own astonishing capability to naturally cleanse the environment. Living green drapes on buildings look elegant and can provide sustainable solutions in congested cities. The Vellore Institute of Technology in India promotes green values within the country. Although the campus is lush and verdant, its ever growing student population precipitated an increase in public thoroughfare causing air pollution. To partially alleviate this problem, walls of a subway connecting the main academic campus and the hostel premises are draped with Vernonia elaegnifolia creeper; this is aesthetically elegant and was found to be efficient in capturing much of the vehicular pollution within the subway. An experimental investigation clubbed with an Ecotect analysis helped ascertain the optimal duration of the temperature drop across the subway. The analysis also predicts an annual savings of 36000 USD per hostel block. A detailed Scanning Electron Microscopic analyses coupled with Spectrophotometry established the deposition pattern of sulphates and nitrates. It is expected that the results of this analysis will promote the use of green facades in this sun drenched country.

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The hazardous sub-micron particulate matter (PM2.5) that goes deep in to the respiratory system causes significant threat to the life expectancy of humans. The atmospheric wind and the diurnal dry bulb temperature are the main factors which govern the pollutant dispersion. This work quantifies the wind assisted deposition of PM2.5 and the natural atmospheric cleansing by a massive green façade drape. The proposed leaf foliage covers the entire South and the West facing walls of a six storied built structure (Visvesvaraya Block) at SAINTGITS, a prominent Technological Institution at Kottayam, Kerala State, India. Whilst the south blowing winds assist the deposition of PM2.5 on to the façade foliage, the removal rate of the pollutants is directly proportional to the stomata opening and the humidity. This case study clearly depicts the natural capability of green façade retrofits to cleanse the atmosphere, thus helps to attain one of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of UN.

Nature has its own astonishing capabilities to cleanse polluted environment. Living green drapes on buildings look elegant providing sustainable solutions in congested metropolises. VIT University promotes green values within the country. The walls of a subway connecting the main campus and hostel premises are draped with Vernonia elaeagnifolia, which was found to be efficient in capturing vehicular pollution. An experimental study established deposition patterns of pollutants. Thereafter, diffusive uptake modelling elucidated the mechanistic details of mass transport through the plant tissues. It is expected that the results of this paper will promote the use of green facades within built environment.