We recently connected with Lindsay Scherr Burgess and have shared our conversation below.

Lindsay, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

We are lucky to be part of the “biophilic design” trend that is taking the interior design world by storm! Biophilia means the love of plants and nature, and our moss walls solve that problem without the need for ongoing maintenance. We see it everywhere now, hotels, office buildings, residences, people are using plants and other natural elements as the basis of their design. We recently did a moss wall for a major hotel chain, that included moss in a large hexagonal behive design. They included blue elements in the rug (to indicate water), had an abstract tree sculpture, and our moss wall as all biophilic elements to really bring the space to life. Biophilia is just one part of sustainability, and a lot of people are also focused on that. We are happy to be at the intersection of nature and design.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

At Green Wallscapes we spread botanical joy with our preserved moss walls, letters, logos, and art. The amazing part is that the mosses and ferns we work with are real, but preserved, so they don’t need watering. It’s the perfect solution for people who want a green wall in their buildings or residence, but don’t want to worry about continuous maintenance, special lighting, irrigation or continuously replacing plants. Green Wallscapes prides itself on pushing the design envelope with our clients, so that we can design and deliver extraordinary projects with this unique material. We also work with realistic faux orchids and succulents, our company being one of the first to incorporate those elements with the moss in the US.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’ve run a company through Covid and we didn’t close. We went through the start up phase, Covid (1.5 years into being in business), figuring out if we were an essential service or not (we were considered essential because we are in the construction business as a specialty contractor), the inability to get supplies and crazy demand, installing projects with masks on (with no A/C), great resignation/lack of employees, and finally as things have begun to somewhat normalize, the market in general has changed. We are now doing either very large or very small projects. All of the middle sized projects are gone. It’s incredibly weird and has made for a lot of whiplash as a business owner. We just keep showing up, even when it is really hard.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

I started Green Wallscapes in my house in 2017 as a hobby project. I had a little Etsy store and I would make small pieces for my friends. In 2018, the project I was doing ended, and I needed a new job. My husband encouraged me to try to give Green Wallscapes a serious go. I did. I started advertising a little bit and let my network know I was taking this business on. Slowly it started to move. I started working with the artist who was living in our back cottage at the time, and then quickly realized I need to get this business out of my house! What a mess (we had moss everywhere). Once I committed to working on the business, we found a small space outside the home. That grew into a 2500 sq ft studio that I share with my husband’s business. We’ve done over 1000 moss walls over the last 6 years all over the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. With regards to manufacturing our custom moss walls, we’ve had to create standards, develop training protocols, source products from new vendors, test adhesives, and so much more to get it to the point where the work looks consistent and amazing. It’s been a ton of trial and error. It is a natural material, so we’ve learn a lot about how to troubleshoot and fix issues as they arise. Luckily, we have a great team and are able to make some incredible, unique green walls.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.GreenWallscapes.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenwallscapes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenwallscapes/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greenwallscapes
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GreenWallscapes
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@greenwallscapes

Image Credits
Photos by Green Wallscapes Team & Clients