Economic survey calls for more vertical gardens to improve urban air quality and mitigate heat

The Economic Survey 2025 on Friday suggested setting up more vertical gardens to improve urban air quality and mitigate heat.

“Transforming urban facades into vibrant green landscapes, vertical gardens, also called living walls or vertical greenery systems, not only enhances the aesthetic appeal of buildings, contributes to environmental sustainability, but also improves thermal performance, sequestering carbon, and fostering biodiversity in densely populated cities,” said the Economy Survey 2024-25, tabled by Union finance and corporate affairs minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament.

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The survey said the government could explore adding guidelines in this regard to the Energy Conservation and Sustainable Building Code (ECSBC), 2024, a set of minimum energy performance standards for commercial buildings in India. 

"While this code facilitates the adoption of sustainable designs, there remains an opportunity for further enhancements, such as explicit guidelines for vertical gardens,” the survey said.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) developed the code, which was implemented in 2007.

Vertical gardens are appealing because they save space and allow growing food or ornamental plants outside the traditional garden. They have emerged as viable measures to address rapid urbanization-led environmental challenges, including the urban heat island effect and carbon emissions.

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The survey highlighted the income tax department's vertical garden initiative as a practical application of this innovation. The I-T department used over 700,000 waste plastic bottles to set up vertical gardens in its buildings across 17 states.

Similarly, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) started its vertical gardening initiative in 2017 by setting up vertical gardens at traffic signals and on metro pillars.

These additions could significantly improve urban air quality and mitigate heat islands. Such policy advancements would align India with global best practices observed in Singapore, Japan, and the European Union, where vertical greening has become integral to urban development.

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The future of urban planning in India stands to gain immensely from embedding these ecological considerations into building policies and approval processes, making vertical gardens a standard feature in the architectural landscape, the survey said, adding that this shift would ultimately contribute to healthier and more sustainable urban environments.

The year 2024 was the first year in history when mean global temperature went 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. This was a breach of the target set by the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.