Flog. Flowers v Smog: Air Pollution-Filtering Flower Meadows

Many cities in the world face the problem of unhealthy levels of particulate matter emitted to the air from automobile transportation they rely on. At the same time, it is often impossible to plant trees near roads, even though it is believed to be an effective solution, due to conflicts with infrastructure and road safety.

The Meadow Foundation (pol. Fundacja Łąka) has been setting up flower meadows and educating on their advantages (such as loss of biodiversity prevention), since 2014. Our goal now is to create FLOG: a scientifically examined roadside mix of meadow plants that is significantly more effective in intercepting particulate matter from transportation than the usual low-cut lawns.

After setting up experimental fields, a laboratory and own seed plantations (because the 'weeds' we are working with are not 'standard' ornamental plants), we will be able to scale the solution internationally and create locally-appropriate anti-smog mixes.

According to data from the World Health Organization and the European Environment Agency, 7 million premature deaths per year worldwide and up to 428 thousand in Europe alone are caused by the exposition to airborne PM2.5.

According to WHO data from 2012-2015 from 3 thousand cities worldwide, one would find as many as 45 Polish cities in the first hundred European cities most polluted by PM10. Therefore, in Poland, more than 46 thousand people die each year because of air pollution. Poland is one of the European Union's countries with the worst air quality. The average annual suspended dust level is almost twice too high. According to Polish Supreme Audit Office (NIK), the actions undertaken in Polish cities are far from sufficient. Worst case scenario for some of them is that air quality might not improve for another 100 years!

Some of Central and Eastern Europe also suffers from a lack of regulations pertaining to the quality of Diesel engines in imported second hand cars and from a general tendency to support individual rather than public transportation. This results in high congestion in the cities and very high levels of car-related air pollution.

Since 2014, the Meadow Foundation (pol. Fundacja Łąka) has been setting up flower meadows in Poland and educating both the general public and the officials on their advantages (such as the prevention of biodiversity loss). We make our seed mixes from native plants that are well adapted to the climate. Once considered 'weeds', the plants are sturdy but beautiful. They provide insects, including pollinators, with food and shelter. They do not need much water or fertilizers, and each species has numerous specific advantages.

Our organisation has 5 areas of interest and everyday work: education, advocacy, seed banks, services and research. We partner with Warsaw University of Life Sciences and Warsaw University’s Botanic Garden to develop new strategies and products based on meadow plants' advantages. One of the studies conducted confirmed that a selected mix can catch air pollution particles permanently. We called it Flog.

We believe that turning roadsides into living and flowering air filters is a smart and beautiful way to redefine urban spaces. The idea has the potential to improve public health and the quality of life for thousands of people worldwide in a natural and beautiful manner.

We are European-level experts in setting up flower meadows. Our new product – Flog – is a selected mixture of air- and soil-purifying plants, which is a ground-breaking way to develop roadside and urban areas.

Plants that were selected in the course of our R&D works catch pollution from air twice as efficiently as trees and 15 times better than lawns. It seems intuitive, although we need scientific confirmation: meadow plants are often sticky, hairy, prickly, serrulate, etc. Their bigger and coarser surface provides for better gas exchange and prevents particulate matter from returning into the air once it lands on the plant, thanks to trichomes or a layer of wax.

Moreover, our product cleans the soil, and does not generate ecological footprint. It is very versatile, and can be sown even in very difficult conditions because it does not require fertilization. The seed mixture is supplemented with a microorganism inoculant: fungi and bacteria which decompose harmful compounds (such as oil-related compounds or heavy metals).

We cooperate closely with two major research centres: Warsaw University of Life Sciences and the University of Warsaw. The scientific coordinator of our R&D projects is Arkadiusz Przybysz, PhD – author of numerous papers in the field of botany. Mr Przybysz coordinates research work of postgraduate students who are ready to perform experiments and write papers on air-cleaning properties of meadow plants. So far, we have selected 35 from 150 plant species tested for suitability for the intended use.

We have access to production and research facilities, including 2 fully equipped tunnels of 800 m2 for the seedlings, and 2,000 m2 of research fields, where we test new mixtures in the small scale. We have our own gene bank with over 500 samples from all over Poland.

In order to scale, we need more test fields in specific places (near roads) to be able to conduct experiments for the sake of scientific proof. We also need more farmland to sow plants for the seeds: the species are rare enough in production that we might be unable to buy enough material, so we need to grow it ourselves. Therefore scaling would include more farming equipment and more manpower. We also hope for a seed cleaning lab and laboratory equipment. Our ambition is to scale-up our product to the international level and help the cities to fight the air pollution problem.

Flower meadows' assets are rather well recognized. Numerous cities in Europe already profit from their advantages over lawns: adaptation to drought due to very deep root systems, that also make soil spongy so water can be absorbed during sudden heavy rain; providing habitat to insects and small wildlife; growing in heavily degraded soil without fertilizers. Meadow plants need cutting down only twice a year, which diminishes the cost of public spaces upkeep six times. 

They were once considered 'weeds' and all that humanity aimed at was getting rid of them. But the multifarious and sturdy species survived and, although nearly forgotten, have become the solution rather than a problem. They are the kind of plants that can adapt to the warming climate without human help. What a paradox!

Our approach is 'innovation through tradition'. We refuse for the 'recency bias' to limit the innovation potential. We need to realize the benefits of past knowledge and to rediscover and use plants that were once common. We are interiorizing and reinterpreting past knowledge to look for ecological and economical solutions to implement in richer and poorer cities alike. 

However, now we decided to scientifically prove what our ancestors couldn't see. The concept behind FLOG is to find the most hairy and sticky of flowering weeds that would also filter air the most effectively during gas exchange.

This is the new dimension that couldn't be researched before; now available for the innovative use of specific wildflowers to solve the contemporary global problem: air pollution.

We have selected 35 from 150 plant species tested for suitability for the intended use according to their physical characteristics. According to preliminary tests, the mixes of these plants absorb road dust 15 times more efficiently then lawns, thanks to trichomes or a layer of sticky wax on leaves and stems. It is now important to research the parameters of permanent PM capturing for each species in laboratory conditions. Only then will it be possible to truly engineer the seed mixes according to this criterion.

The seed mixture is supplemented with a microorganism inoculant: fungi and bacteria that decompose harmful compounds (such as oil-related compounds or heavy metals) found in the soil. It is important because the product is intended for use at the roadsides and in the cities, where much of soil was being degraded for decades due to the use od salt in winter and too intensive mowing and raking (which stop humus from forming). Our priority is to accomplish the research on the bacterial inoculant and R&D works regarding preparation of local seeds mixtures for three different European countries (chosen after market analysis).

The project is at the demonstration stage of the product. Pilot projects were carried out in two largest cities in Poland: Krakow and Warsaw, on the area of 300 and 1 000 sq. m, in roadside zones. Three different mixes of selected plants were tested. The laboratory tests confirmed the expected effects: the flower meadow absorbs road dust even more efficiently than trees.

Meadow Foundation has been setting up urban flower meadows for 5 years. Our everyday activities are linked to the 5 areas of Meadow Foundation's operations: education, advocacy, seed banks, research and services. Many of our clients are municipalities to whom we provide meadow-related services through public procurement procedures (we have considerable competitive advantage thanks to over 130 projects completed and operations in over a dozen cities). Cities are ready to introduce changes that are practical, economical and beautiful. Especially when additional benefits for the quality of life are present, such as in FLOG.

This year, every single day, Polish local press reports 1-3 new municipalities that decide to set up meadows. Innovative ideas with additional functions, notably FLOG, are received enthusiastically throughout Poland. In two major cities: Warsaw and Lodz, City Councillors have already motioned the Mayors to try out Flog. We also received letters of intent from other big cities such as Krakow.

According to preliminary tests conducted at the renowned Warsaw University of Life Sciences, the mixes of the plants selected for our experiments absorb road dust 15 times more efficiently then lawns. We dedicate our innovation to roadsides, because a report on Polish capital city stated that road transportation is the source of 40% of potentially carcinogenic airborne particulate matter. It is efficient to purify air as close to the source of emission as possible. Flog can benefit public health greatly, since the problem of air pollution in the cities is one of the most urgent worldwide.

With over a dozen big cities in our portfolio and 130 projects completed, we could speak of thousands of people benefited so far. The fact of the matter is that meadows change micro-climates and influence air purity locally. We are well aware that our operations need significant scaling to change the situation regionally or globally.

However, meadow environmental effects in their close vicinity, should be viewed as an asset. Each city could target the roads that need intervention the most: those with the worst traffic that are also used by many pedestrians, bicycle riders or that neighbour very densly populated areas. We believe that removing particulate matter from the air benefits every urban resident. 

The sustainability of this project will be assured by a broad scale sales activity on Polish, European and global market. Our priority is to secure the access to wild plant seeds, which are a commodity in short supply nowadays. Ultimately, when it comes to Polish market, we want to relay mainly on our own resources. Therefore the investment in production facilities is needed.

Our priority is preparation of local seeds mixes for three different European countries. We will undertake a preliminary market analysis in order to indicate three most promising EU markets for our product. After having accomplished the R&D works and pilot implementation on new markets, the Feasibility study should be prepared. The study should include a detailed analysis of chosen markets, i.e. a market size, potential partners, market trends, market growth rate, market profitability, distribution channels, key success factors, and competitors. 

Our activity on foreign markets will be based mainly on licence agreements with future partners. It is necessary to establish contacts with entities in the EU and build a database of companies interested in product licensing. We plan to use the first implementations as case studies and on this basis prepare an intensive press campaign. The campaign will focus on Polish and chosen European markets (Germany, England, France) to draw attention of potential clients and licence partners. Achieving the sales goals on EU market should be the final test before starting the activity on a worldwide scale.

We have mapped the following barriers:

• The economy of scale – activities will only become profitable after achieving mass production.
• Capital needs – product implementation will generate significant costs in the terms of production facilities, R&D works and marketing.
• A worse cost position – the production costs of our solution are higher than the costs of substitution solution (lawns).
• Unwillingness to introduce a product by companies dealing with maintaining greenery.

The ways to overcome the barriers that we have mapped:

• The economy of scale: intensive marketing activities are needed.
• Capital needs – gaining external financing is needed.
• A worse cost position – underlining the ecological and public health profits in public discourse is needed.
• Unwillingness to introduce the product: educational and advocacy activities are needed.

CEO:

Maciej Podyma - the President of Meadow Foundation

Arkadiusz Przybysz, PhD - Research and Development 

Full-time staff:

Michał Cepak - Head of Seed Bank and Seed Mixes Dept.
Rajmund Scholtz - Head of Seed and Seedling Dept.
Piotr Kotliński - Head of Services
Agnieszka Nowak - Environmental Education and Marketing Dept.
Anna Lipiec - Environmental Prodection Dept.


We train and hire contractors that provide services as certified entities according to need.

The team includes a biologist, a botany scientist, university-educated specialists in gardening and farming, an urban development specialist and an environmental protection specialist. We share common values and exchange skills and knowledge.

We are one of the pioneers of flower meadows in Poland. Our prefessional experience: the sheer number of projects completed as well as their diversity makes us leaders in our industry ans well as opinion leaders for the general public in our field. 

We have worked with over a dozen of cities in Poland, including the capital city and a few regional capitals, realizing groundbreaking and ambitious large-scale projects. One example is Vistula river meadow restoration project carried out on the area of nearly 70 ha on both banks of the queen of Polish rivers. It aimed at suppressing alien, invasive plant species and restoring natural biodiversity. The project also answered the need for improving flood effects mitigation program in Poland’s capital. It was co-finaced form the EEA grants.

Our President, Maciej Podyma, is a member of Ashoka Foundation and can be considered 'a professional changemaker'. Ashoka builds and cultivates a community of change leaders who see that the world now requires everyone to be a changemaker. Together, we collaborate to transform institutions and cultures worldwide so they support changemaking for the good of society.

Our business partners are some of  the largest self-governments in Poland, international banks and corporations (previously verified, in order to keep our values), local or social businesses and start ups.

As for R&D, we cooperate with the most recognised plant research centers in Poland.

Target groups which will be the customer and payer are:

• public road operators and entities responsible for urban greenery - interested in the service related to setting up and care of roadside and urban greenery of quality;
• the contractors of services related to setting up and caring for roadside and urban greenery - interested in the anti-smog mix of seeds,
• seed producers, breeding and seed companies – interested in us licencing the idea.

Our main revenues are:

• product sale: seed mixtures,
• providing services: meadow setting up and care,
• product licencing.

Our main sales channels are:

• selling seeds directly and through distributors,
• providing services within public procurement procedures.

Our main partners are:

• seed producers,
• distributors,
• service companies.

The production of seeds will take place mostly in our own scope. However, initially, before the purchase of necessary equipment, and possibly farmland, it will be necessary to obtain the seeds from external contractors.

Activities linked to developing and implementing Flog will only become profitable after achieving mass production. To achieve it, we need considerably more equipment and manpower, and even farmland, since our priority is to secure the access to wild plant seeds, which are a commodity in short supply. Ultimately, when it comes to Polish market, we want to relay mainly on our own resources. Therefore the investment in production facilities is needed.

General education on public health issues linked to air pollution from road transportation is necessary for the inhabitants of the cities to realise the importance of air-purifying plants in the public space and for them to advocate for Flog in their city halls. Underlining the ecological profits in public discourse is needed. Funding and ideas for these campaigns would be much appreciated.

Since the production costs of our solution are higher than the costs of substitution solution, which are common lawns, we need considerable funds for educational campaigns explaining the environmental advantages of anti-smog meadows.