# Offices & Corporate Campuses > Grounds that help you lease space, welcome clients and give staff somewhere better to look, at lower upkeep than lawn. **Summary:** Grounds that help you lease space, welcome clients and give staff somewhere better to look, at lower upkeep than lawn. ![The entrance of a commercial building with new planting beds on both sides of the walkway](https://healingearthdesignbysarah.com/rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MzQwLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--0ae820c3785fc71ecaa1aff933bbd10c2ada88f3/IMG_2111.webp) ## Good landscaping showed up in office rents. **Intro:** A study of office buildings found that landscaping with good visual appeal went with rents about 7% higher. Inside, people who can see greenery from where they work say they feel better and work better. For an owner or a tenant, the grounds are part of what the space is worth, and native plantings can cost less to keep than the lawn they replace. - Leasing and renewals — A cared-for entrance and grounds help a building show well to prospective tenants and keep the ones you have. - Views from the desk — Plantings outside the windows give staff green to look at, which workplace studies link to wellbeing and fewer sick days. - Lower grounds costs — Natives in place of mown turf cut mowing, watering and fertilizer once they're established. - Sustainability you can show — Pollinator habitat and rain gardens are visible, practical commitments for your ESG and community reporting. - ~7% — higher rent at office buildings whose landscaping had good visual appeal, in a study of 85 buildings near Cleveland. — - 15% — higher wellbeing reported by office workers with natural elements in their workplace, and 6% higher productivity. — - 57 vs. 68 — hours of sick leave a year: staff with views of trees and landscape against those with none. — - 33% — of office workers say an office's design would affect whether they'd work for a company. — **What we'd plant:** - A welcoming entrance with layered, four-season planting - Native meadow areas in place of little-used lawn - A staff garden or courtyard for breaks - Rain gardens at downspouts and parking-lot edges - Seasonal containers at the front doors **Calculator: label for that figure:** Annual rent roll **Calculator: uplift, low (%):** 0.5 **Calculator: uplift, high (%):** 2 **Calculator: where the uplift comes from:** Uplift of 0.5% to 2% of annual rent. Laverne & Winson-Geideman (2003) found about 7% higher rent with good landscaping, but compared well-landscaped buildings with poorly landscaped ones in one city. Upgrading an existing building closes only part of that gap, so we use a fraction of it. Staff wellbeing gains are left out of the money. **Planner choice:** Office or corporate campus - We lease our building. Is this worth it for us? — If you renew or re-let space, the grounds are part of what people see first. If you're a tenant, ask your landlord: plantings are often a shared improvement. - Can native plantings look tidy enough for a corporate site? — Yes. We design with clear edges, mown borders and plants grouped in drifts, so a native planting reads as intentional, not overgrown. - How does a commercial project start? — With a visit to the property, on-site or virtual. We look at sun, soil, drainage, how people arrive and what you want the place to feel like, and then send a plan with clear next steps and a price. --- Source: https://healingearthdesignbysarah.com/industries/offices-corporate-campuses Updated: 2026-10-12