The University of Louisville has received a $5 million grant to study connections between a green environment and human health. The grant will fund Louisville’s Envirome Institute’s Green Heart project.
Out of $5 million, $3 million has been donated by the National Institutes, while $2 million were provided by the Nature Conservancy.
Under the project, the institute will study various dimensions of the environment and human health that includes innovative landscape design, air quality and the qualities of a friendly healthy neighborhood and human health.
“People appreciate trees and they’re good and they’re aesthetically pleasing, but whether they actually have specific quantifiable health-promoting effects by removing pollutants from the air has never been rigorously tested,” Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar, director of the Envirome Institute said. “Through the Green Heart project, we are changing that.”
University President Neeli Bendapudi, while expressing appreciation to Bhatnagar for his efforts, said that the project is will lead to healthier communities.
“The Green Heart project is the epitome of collaboration,” Bendapudi said.
“Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar and his team are bringing together people from not only all of the university, but throughout Louisville and beyond to create a new paradigm for population research that truly has international implications,” he added.
A collaboration between the University of Louisville and Washington University in St. Louis, the Green Heart team will start with studying 16 low vegetation neighborhood clusters in Louisville to examine and understand the impact of greenery on human health.