Air quality inequality is a rising concern as climate change and social inequality overlap. Marginalized communities, often low-income neighborhoods or minority populations, tend to bear a disproportionate burden of environmental pollution, including poor air quality. Factors such as the location of industrial facilities, waste sites, or highways near these communities can lead to increased exposure to harmful pollutants. Many tactics such as green walls and “sustainable architecture” have attempted to address this concern but lead to greenwashing and exacerbate current conditions. Air purification systems currently on the market are not only expensive and inaccessible to low-income groups, but only filter out larger particulate matter which is only a fraction of the compounds that pollute the air. This biophillic air purification system is designed to work more efficiently than other typical air purifiers on the market or passive techniques such as the “green wall”. In addition to the process of photosynthesis, which uses the upper part of the plant to purify air, this air purification system utilizes the roots of the plant which has been proven to effectively remove Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and other smaller particulate matter otherwise left unfiltered by on the market purification systems and basic filtration systems in HVAC systems.
