Last week, the laboratory staff planted the first plants that will eventually cover the metal structures on the south façade of the TBI laboratory.
‘The Arches of Biodiversity’ is a project to introduce vegetation to the main TBI building (Building 39-MB3 on the INSA Toulouse campus), funded by the CNRS, INSA Toulouse and TBI.
This project aims to install arch-shaped metal structures to guide climbing plants from the ground up to the grilles on the building’s entrance façade. Its main objective is to promote biodiversity by providing a habitat for insects and spiders, which in turn can serve as a food source for birds. The greening of the south façade of this building, which currently has a rather industrial appearance, forms part of a wider project to re-green the INSA Toulouse campus, which TBI and the CNRS have chosen to support. The impact of this greening initiative will be studied in terms of biodiversity, quality of life at work, perceptions of biodiversity, the mitigation of heat islands and, to a lesser extent and in the longer term, in terms of energy savings.
