living wall

BNG, One Year On

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As we look back on the first anniversary of the UK’s Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) policy, Vertical Meadow stands at the forefront of integrating genuine ecological value into urban landscapes. Our living walls transcend mere aesthetics; they serve as vital habitats that contribute directly to biodiversity enhancement.​

Understanding Biodiversity Net Gain

The BNG policy, enacted in February 2024, mandates that new developments achieve at least a 10% net increase in biodiversity compared to pre-development conditions. This initiative aims to ensure that development projects not only minimise environmental harm but also contribute positively to ecological networks. The policy offers flexibility in achieving this gain, allowing for on-site enhancements or the purchase of biodiversity units from third parties. ​

The Value and Criticisms of BNG

While BNG represents a progressive step towards sustainable development, it has been met with both commendation and critique. Proponents argue that BNG provides a structured framework for integrating nature into urban planning, fostering habitats, and enhancing ecosystem services. For instance, some renewable energy projects are aiming for biodiversity uplifts of 100%, significantly exceeding the mandatory 10%, thereby contributing substantially to local ecosystems. ​Reuters

However, critics express concerns regarding the policy’s implementation and effectiveness. A study revealed that housebuilders in England have delivered only about half of the promised nature-friendly features, such as trees and bird boxes, in new developments. This shortfall highlights challenges in enforcement and the need for more stringent compliance mechanisms to ensure that biodiversity commitments are met. ​The Guardian

Vertical Meadow’s Commitment to BNG

At Vertical Meadow, we recognise both the potential and the challenges of the BNG policy. Our approach is designed to not only meet but exceed BNG requirements through innovative and ecologically sound practices.​

Exclusive Use of Native Species

A fundamental criterion for achieving a ‘Good’ condition under the statutory biodiversity metric is the complete absence of invasive non-native species. Many conventional living walls incorporate ornamental or non-native plants, which may not support local wildlife and can even become invasive. In contrast, Vertical Meadow’s systems utilise 100% native species, ensuring full compliance with BNG standards and providing appropriate habitats for local fauna.​

On-Site Seed Cultivation

Our methodology involves cultivating plants directly from seed on-site. This approach creates lighter, thinner living walls that adapt better to their environments than traditional pre-grown plant systems. By allowing plants to develop in situ, we enhance their resilience and reduce maintenance needs, thereby supporting long-term ecological integrity.​

Enhancing Urban Biodiversity

Over the past year, our installations have played a pivotal role in restoring biodiversity within urban settings. Our living walls act as ‘stepping stones’ for nature. They facilitate species movement and connectivity across fragmented habitats, strengthening urban ecosystems. These green infrastructures not only support wildlife but also offer ecosystem services such as improved air quality and climate regulation.​

Looking Ahead

BNG lays a foundation for biodiversity in development, but its success relies on effective implementation and enforcement. Vertical Meadow is committed to advancing urban greening. Our practices are rooted in ecological principles and deliver measurable biodiversity benefits.

Join us in cultivating a wilder, more biodiverse future—one wall at a time.

New Year, New Shoots

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Growing Biodiversity in 2025

As we step into 2025, the team at Vertical Meadow is filled with excitement for the opportunities ahead. We replaced our trial panels at VMHQ before Christmas and were inspired upon seeing new shoots when we arrived back in the new year!

Creating Sustainable Green Spaces

At Vertical Meadow, we integrate nature into urban spaces. Our mission is to create green areas that foster biodiversity. Each year, we reflect on our progress and explore new possibilities in urban greening. By transforming temporary scaffolding walls into green meadows, we restore nature where it’s been lost, which ultimately creates healthier, more vibrant cities.

The Power of Biodiversity

The theme “New Year, New Shoots” perfectly aligns with our vision. Every new shoot symbolizes life, growth, and renewal. In turn, our green walls restore ecosystems, create wildlife habitats, and improve air quality. By focusing on diverse plant species, we strengthen local flora, fauna, and urban resilience.

Looking Ahead to 2025

Looking ahead, we are committed to expanding our sustainable, nature-powered green solutions. This year, we will continue to develop projects that bring nature to the forefront of urban design, fostering deeper connections between people and their environments. Consequently, we are excited about the new projects that will have a lasting impact on cities.

Together, We Can Grow

By nurturing green spaces, we restore balance between nature and urban development. As we embrace 2025, we look forward to growing, collaborating, and driving positive change. Let’s make this year one of thriving biodiversity, vibrant ecosystems, and healthier cities.

New partnership with Sotech to launch ‘Optima Meadow’

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We are thrilled to introduce to the UK market our innovative ‘living wall’ rainscreen cladding solution ‘Optima Meadow’ – developed in collaboration with leading rainscreen manufacturer Sotech.  Combining our tried and tested living wall technology with Sotech’s market-leading cladding system, Optima Meadow is designed to enhance urban environments and reintroduce wildlife to our densely populated cities.

Get in touch to explore how Optima Meadow can be deployed on your project.

The system offers a bio-diverse, attractive, and more sustainable approach to urban greening. By integrating plant life directly into vertical building façades, we are transforming urban landscapes into thriving, green habitats. It has been developed for permanent applications, sitting alongside our Meadow Wrap for temporary applications such as construction sites.

“The concept involves taking seeds from a meadow and embedding them into an innovative rainscreen cladding system,” explains Graham Todd, Technical Director at Sotech. “This solution is integrated into our fully drained and back-ventilated hook-on rainscreen system with limited combustibility. As always, design, safety, and functionality have been central to our approach.”

Effective from February 2024, developers in England must achieve a Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) of 10%, ensuring a net increase in natural habitats. We have collaborated with experts from The Wildlife Trust, Buglife, and Professor Nigel Dunnett to ensure Optima Meadow delivers on biodiversity, contributing to BNG as well as Urban Greening Factors and BREEAM points stipulated in planning permission.

“These vertical meadows not only help designers meet regulatory requirements,” says Alistair, “but also create beautiful focal points, allow communal roof space on existing buildings to be maximized, and attract bees, butterflies and other wildlife back into our cities. ”

Unlike alternative living wall solutions, Optima Meadow is a dry product delivered to the site, removing the need for pre-growing plants in nurseries or the wet and dirty transportation of fragile live plants. It is connected to an irrigation system, WiFi, power, and water supplies, and then activated to begin the germination process. Plant growth and flowering are monitored via simple inspection and apps, and the need for on-site maintenance is minimal.

It boasts a design life of over 30 years, equivalent to traditional hook-on rainscreen systems. Made from A1 components, it ensures high safety standards and uses Eco 3, 5000 series aluminium, which is 94% recycled, reinforcing our commitment to sustainability.

“There is a huge market for this product,” says Alistair. “We have installations in London and abroad and are in advanced discussions with various sectors, including data centres, schools, and commercial offices. Data centres, for example, have vast vertical spaces ideal for Vertical Meadow installations, which improve energy efficiency through cooling, enhance biodiversity, and reduce noise attenuation.”

As cities worldwide seek to incorporate more green spaces, Optima Meadow offers a viable, long-lasting solution to enhance urban biodiversity and aesthetics. It is now available for specification through the Sotech technical team. We invite designers, installers, and contractors to get in touch and see our living wall solution in person at various locations across the UK.

Common misconceptions associated with living facades and green walls 

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As more and more of the world’s population transition from rural and naturally vegetated areas to urban centres, we must find new and innovative ways to better integrate nature into our ever-expanding cities. While green roofs and parks serve as valuable means of achieving this goal, vast amounts of vertical space remain largely untapped. Green walls not only reintroduce nature into urban life but do so in a manner that is accessible to all. However, there are still a number of common misconceptions associated with living facades and green walls.  

Here, we try to dispel some myths to highlight why living facades are crucial, viable solutions for urban greening and helping to combat biodiversity loss.  

Living walls don’t support biodiversity 

Living walls have long been dismissed as being poor in supporting biodiversity. Why is this? They usually use non-native species, grow with a limited variety of plants typically chosen for their evergreen nature (ivy, wide leafed grasses etc) and they are sprayed with pesticides or use bio controls to manage ‘pests’.  

This does not have to be the case. At Vertical Meadow we grow only native wildflowers on our walls that have been selected and approved by experts at The Wildlife Trusts and Buglife to support invertebrates. We have a wide range of wildflowers on our walls to provide a mixed sward essential for supporting biodiversity. Because of its complexity and the variety of insects it supports, a wildflower meadow is self-regulating so we can’t imagine ever employing pest control. For us pests do not exist, they are just one of the delights of nature! 

Living facades are expensive to install  

Depending on which system you choose the cost varies. They can be expensive if you choose pre-planted systems with expensive plants in them. They are also often add-ons to buildings or hoardings rather than integrated.  

Our Vertical Meadow solutions have been designed to integrate with the structures they are attached to. Our Wrap staples seamlessly to existing site hoardings, whilst our Cladding is installed like a standard rainscreen panel onto vertical cladding rails. As we grow from seed at Vertical Meadow, the fixed costs of the plants are avoided and make our walls significantly cheaper.  

Living walls are difficult and costly to maintain 

Living walls placed in difficult to access locations can be expensive to maintain. You can reduce this by filling up the walls with low maintenance species such as ivy and non-native grasses, however these don’t provide significant benefits for biodiversity. Additionally, if they are designed to be perfectly manicured all year round, this also increases maintenance costs.  

Our Vertical Meadow walls require very little maintenance as they are designed to be wild and seasonal. Once they are installed, they will typically only require one or two annual cuts. Basic monitoring through a bespoke inspection app is undertaken by the site team as part of their rounds coupled with an irrigation system app that monitors weather, power and water supply remotely, making adjustments and sending alerts as required.  

Living facades are purely aesthetic 

They are definitely more substance over style! Aside from being beneficial to biodiversity (as mentioned above) they can also help contain dust, lessen noise reverberation, and reduce the urban heat island effect locally (surface temperature measurements we have taken show a 5 degree reduction). Beyond the physical benefits, they instil a sense of community pride and environmental stewardship whilst acting as educational tools for children and adults.  

Our Vertical Meadow products also produce less embodied carbon than alternative living wall systems – so the benefits are definitely more than just purely aesthetic! The embodied carbon associated with the growing and transport of 1000’s of pot plants to fill up traditional living walls is significant compared to our seeded approach. Our Cladding product is designed to last for 25-50 years and can be fully disassembled at the end of its life. 

However, we should also be careful not to overstate the benefits of living walls. Their ability to sequester carbon and clean air is sometimes overplayed by practitioners, and here the evidence from research is limited. At Vertical Meadow, we see biodiversity and impact on well-being as the main benefits living walls bring. 

Living facades should be perfectly green and flawless all year round 

Nature needs time to rest. And living walls are no different. They will need periods of dormancy in order to recover from the stresses of the growing season. In some cases, it may be necessary to allow for some limited browning of the meadow walls in the winter months for a period of time in order to allow the natural processes of regeneration to occur in spring. This makes nature’s spectacle of spring all the more thrilling.  

Living facades are only suitable for new buildings? 

Living facades can be retrofitted to existing buildings, however, there are some factors that need to be considered such as the structural integrity of the building (weight of living wall system) and ease of access for maintenance. 

Our Cladding is compatible with all standard metal rainscreen systems and easily installed by any  facade contractor. It’s also the thinnest and lightest system on the market, and the only one that acts as  fit-for-purpose cladding, rather than an additional layer that sits in front of the cladding. 

For buildings and sites in transition, our Meadow Wrap provides a simple solution for site hoardings and scaffolding which ensures continuity of habitat for site biodiversity between pre-development and post-completion.  

Meadow Cladding demonstrator with Josef Gartner GmbH

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We are excited to announce details of our demonstrator project with Josef Gartner GmbH (part of the Permasteelisa Group) which is currently being grown and tested in Gundelfingen, Germany.

Following the recent launch of our new Meadow Cladding system, we have been working in collaboration with Gartner to develop its first prototype of a meadow façade using our patented façade greening solution which grows native wildflower meadows that are designed to restore and enhance biodiversity in cities.

In the midst of climate change, increasing urbanisation, and legislative and policy requirements, the integration of green façades is becoming a necessary element in architecture and construction.

The project is the result of a research project carried out with Gartner – one of the world’s most advanced façade contractors – to demonstrate the integration of our system into a curtain wall façade.

“This new innovative façade explores new ways of making our cities more enjoyable and livable, offering vital year-round support for biodiversity whilst also helping mitigate urban overheating locally.”

Alistair Law, CEO at Vertical Meadow

As we move closer to Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) becoming a mandatory part of the planning system in England and the implementation of more stringent EU biodiversity regulations, we believe our Meadow Cladding technology offers a great opportunity for sustainable architecture and opens up completely new possibilities.

WILD HOPE | Can Vertical Meadows Bring Wildlife Back to Cities?

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We’re incredibly honoured that our work has been featured in the documentary film series, Wild Hope.

The episode looks at how, as urban expansion quickly replaces natural habitats, Vertical Meadow founder Alistair Law is pioneering a new way to restore native ecosystems for pollinators and create natural spaces for us all within cities.

Wild Hope highlights the changemakers – farmers, fishers, students, teachers, citizen volunteers, and scientists – who are working to restore and protect biodiversity by sharing stories that inspire and surprise audiences with bold interventions, unexpected alliances, and nature’s resilience.

We are privileged to be joined on film with our collaborators and friends at Emorsgate Seeds and Buglife, together raising awareness about how positive change is possible through local action. Our ambition, along with the team at Wild Hope is to use this as a catalyst to inspire further action and to build a movement – a community of supporters as well as active participants who seek ways to improve biodiversity in their local environments.

We hope you enjoy watching!