Vertical Gardens Exist. You're Welcome. Living walls are sprucing up retail spaces.

Green is gold in today's environmentally conscious market, and studies have shown that demonstrable environmental consciousness can tip the balance for consumers when making purchasing decisions. Retailers have been quick to take notice—not just by using sustainable processes and packaging in their ventures, but by changing the way consumers experience their brands. One high-impact way to do so is by incorporating what's known as living walls—vertical planting systems—into retail spaces.

Environmentally conscious jeweler Todd Reed built a two-level living wall into his recently opened store in Venice, Calif. The installation begins on the building's facade and continues to the interior, cut by a wall of glass. Mike M. Moore, founder of architecture firm Tres Birds Workshop, is helping the Boulder, Colo.-based jeweler stake his claim in California.

"We felt a need to soften the building and connect outside to inside," Moore says. The exterior portion of the wall helps absorb auto noise from the busy street, acts as signage and lures passersby with its beauty and jasmine scent. Inside the store, the wall also works
as a sound dampener, while reducing heat and adding color and life to the space. Reed, whose designs often incorporate raw natural elements such as rough diamonds, says the living wall reflects his aesthetic and keeps him "personally inspired."