Table 1 Environmental, socio-psychological and economic benefits from biophilic design based on Newman, Beatley and Boyer, 2017

Better workplace productivity

$2000 per employee per year from daylighting;

$2990 per employee over 4 months when desks angled to view nature.

Improved health and healing

$93 million per year in reduced hospital cost if natural features provided in the U.S. hospitals.

Increased retail potential

Skylighting in a chain store would result in a 40% sales increase, ±7%.

25% higher sales in vegetated street frontage.

Decreased crime and violence

Public housing with greenery had 52% reduction in felonies.

Biophilic landscapes introduced across New York City would save $1.7 billion through crime reduction.

Increased property values

Biophilic buildings attract higher rental prices, 3% per square foot or 7% in effective rents, selling at prices 16% higher.

Employee attraction

Biophilics attract and retain high-quality workers.

Increased liveability in dense areas

Green features increase salability of densely built apartment blocks.

Carbon sequestration

In Singapore aboveground vegetation sequesters 7.8% of the total emitted daily carbon dioxide (Velasco et al., 2016).

Reduced urban heat island effect and reduced energy consumption

Due to shading provided by urban trees, in Los Angeles annual residential air-conditioning (A/C) bills can be reduced directly by about US$100 million, additional savings of US$70 million in indirect cooling, US$360 million in smog-reduction benefits (Rosenfeld et al., 1998).

Water management and quality

Up to 70% of stormwater retention capability, depending of the local climate and other conditions.

Air quality

Urban street canyons full of greenery can reduce particulate matter by up to 60% and nitrogen dioxide by up to 40%.

Biodiversity conservation

A study of 115 wildly colonized green roofs in north of France found that 86% of species were native to the area.