Those who have passed by the Floriculture Greenhouse on Cook campus within the past two weeks may have noticed the aesthetically pleasing addition to the entrance.
The Eco Wall, invented by class of 2006 University graduate Mike Coraggio, is a vertical garden that helps produce oxygen, reduce carbon dioxide, purify the air, reduce energy and moderate temperature in places such as office buildings, shopping malls, restaurants or even homes.
Coraggio has a degree in environmental design and landscape architecture, and at 25-years-old, he is the designer and president of EcoWalls, LLC.
He has done research in animal habitats and Biodiversity, and had planned to go into Zoologic design to create habitats for animals. But after visiting the rainforests of Costa Rica to study Poison Dart Frogs, he was struck by the Epiphytes - rainforest flora growing upward on trees that do not need soil to grow - he saw there.
Those plants inspired Coraggio's idea for the vertical garden.
"There is minimal space in a building, so building upward actually makes sense, as crazy as it sounds," Coraggio said.
"If we can't plant on the ground, maybe we can replace the green spaces we've lost on a wall, and that's where my interest started to take root," he said. "In my field, we're coming across problems because when we build, we leave a green footprint, so as designers we struggle with how to replace the green space that was taken away in urban environments."
Post-graduation, he began researching green technologies and unique design solutions in urban spaces and worked in the Floriculture Greenhouse to develop his prototype.
Coraggio said there is no maintenance or dirt involved in the Eco Wall. Epiphytic plants are grown on an exterior inorganic membrane created from 90 percent recycled plastics, he said.
The plants are attached with plastic wire clips, and after one month, they have roots in the recycled fiber. Fans from within pull polluted air from the environment through filter panels that trap the pollutants and beneficial bacteria then grow to break them down.
The nutrients are then flushed through the membranes using a drip irrigation system and taken in by the plants. Finally, the fans push purified air back into the environment.
"These are energy-efficient mechanisms which go with our philosophy of being an environmentally-friendly company," Coraggio said.
Coraggio said when he began his research he looked at what others had already done with vertical gardens and wanted to improve the idea to give it a functional purpose that provides health benefits, along with the aesthetic.
"It made the entrance beautiful and Mike used all of the Greenhouse's spare plants, which is a great use for them," said Nicoletta Graf, Research Farm Supervisor at the Floriculture Greenhouse. "We had a pond, and now it's incorporated into the [Eco Wall] so it's put a lot of different aspects of the greenhouse together. The professors are all thrilled by it."
Coraggio paid for the materials to construct the Eco Wall but also received donations.
"It was a leap of faith for everyone. But it worked out really well, and everyone's very enthusiastic about it," Coraggio said.
Graf said when University buses pass the greenhouse, people often stop in to comment on it.
"We get missed - no one knows we're here, so it's nice to have students come in," she said.
Coraggio said the design process took almost one year and the construction of the Eco Wall that began in December was completed two weeks ago.
"The response has been really positive," he said. "It's an exciting thing, and I couldn't have done it without the expertise of my partner, Rutgers Ph.D. candidate, Ryan Burrows, and the help of the Floriculture Greenhouse team: Nicki, Gail and Helen."
"[The Eco Wall] benefits the Greenhouse and the interests of the students, to see it," said Gail Johnson, head Greenhouse technician. "They've been talking with Mike and asking him a lot of questions about it. This is probably [the first time] a student has asked to display something in our Greenhouse, and I've just been getting all positive feedback from it."
Coraggio said his company recently had a meeting with potential clients and just started selling the Eco Wall within the last week. Several had heard about the Eco Wall from their children who are University students, and professors set the company up with a job to create a therapy garden for a nursing home in the area, he said.
"I wanted to do something different graduating from college and make a difference in the world via an environmental impact," he said. "You go to college to learn how to make a difference and it was neat to go back to Rutgers, the first place to take the plunge with my crazy idea."
