Growing Connections with the Founder of Visionary Farms

Elena Boos is not your typical founder. Part engineer, part environmentalist, and part storyteller, she’s reimagining

what it means to grow green in urban spaces. As the driving force behind Visionary Farms, Elena blends cutting-edge technology with a deep belief in human connection, using light, sensors, and data not to automate nature, but to bring people closer to it.

“Getting people involved from the start, letting them choose what to grow - that's what gives them ownership and joy"

Tom Nugent: Could you start by telling us a little bit about your journey? How did you come to found Visionary Farms?

Elena Boos: At Visionary Farms, we’ve developed technology that allows plants to grow almost anywhere. The idea is to bringnature indoors in new ways, creating bio-diverse plantings that often use varieties you wouldn’t normally see. People get particularly excited when edible plants are included, because it makes the experience multi-sensory: aroma, taste, and touch all come into play. It also encourages community engagement among the people using the space. My background is closely tied to that. Before Visionary Farms, I worked in vertical farming technology, helping to build and scale a company that created large-scale indoor farms growing leafy greens, herbs, strawberries, and microgreens.

 We started in 2017, commercialised by 2019, and in just a few years delivered 18 indoor farming projects. Some were enormous, our largest was 1,400 square metres and still operates today, supplying fresh produce to retail. Others were smaller installations in offices, universities, and schools, such as an SEN school that used tech-enabled vertical gardens.

Those projects had huge impact, but they also had challenges: the technology was complex, expensive to install, and hard to maintain.

With Visionary Farms, I wanted to simplify that model, to create technology that’s easy to understand, install, and maintain, while also being cost-accessible. We’ve stripped it down to the essentials: energy-efficient lighting that provides perfect conditions for indoor plants, sensors that monitor the environment, and a digital-twin platform that controls everything.

Tom Nugent: For readers who may not know, could you explain what vertical farming actually is?

Elena Boos: Traditional farming happens on a flat field, a 2D plane. Vertical farming reimagines that by stacking growing layers upwards, usually in indoor spaces where the environment is fully controlled. Meaning you can give crops perfect conditions all the time, producing consistent quality and yield.

Because the environment is clean and closed, there’s no need for pesticides or herbicides, so produce is safer and often higher quality. Plus, plants grown under perfect conditions are typically more flavourful and nutritious.

Tom Nugent: That makes sense. I remember studying Singapore as a case study because of their food-security challenges.

Elena Boos: Exactly. Singapore, and more recently the UAE, have made huge investments in vertical farming to reduce their reliance on imports. Singapore now produces a growing portion of its own greens locally, which is an incredible shift.

Tom Nugent: How does Visionary Farms help engage communities with planting and nature, especially in commercial spaces?

Elena Boos: We started in 2017, commercialised by 2019, and in just a few years delivered 18 indoor farming projects. Some were enormous, our largest was 1,400 square metres and still operates today, supplying fresh produce to retail. Others were smaller installations in offices, universities, and schools, such as an SEN school that used tech-enabled vertical gardens.

It’s important to clarify that while my background is in vertical farming, Visionary Farms isn’t a vertical-farming company anymore. We use commercial-grade technology to create unique, biodiverse plantings in workplaces, retail, and hospitality, sometimes vertical, sometimes traditional planters, much like the work Plant Plan does. Biophilic design is powerful, but too often plants become static decor, like artwork people stop noticing. We encourage plantings that people can interact with: unusual varieties, edible plants, or sensory elements that invite curiosity.

One of my favourite examples is a client called X&Y, a green co-working space. They used our tech to create an indoor community allotment where staff grow herbs together. Every month, the team decides what to plant, harvests it, and then uses it to make cocktails at the end of the month. It’s simple, cost-effective, and incredibly engaging.

Tom Nugent: That’s brilliant. Dynamic environments people can interact with make biophilia truly successful.

Elena Boos: Completely. Too often, biophilic elements are prohibitively expensive. I was talking recently to a designer who found an air-scrubbing wall covering she loved, but it cost four times as much as the standard option, impossible to justify for most clients. Our aim is to make biophilic technology accessible and affordable, so great design doesn’t become a luxury.

Tom Nugent: What are the most popular plants people choose to grow in these spaces?

Elena Boos:Herbs, definitely. They grow quickly, smell amazing, and are easy to use. People also love flowering plants because they’re less common in workplace planting. And sometimes we use planting to reflect brand identity, selecting colours or textures that subtly echo the company’s visual language.

Tom Nugent: A slightly technical question. What lighting systems do you use? Do you develop your own?

Elena Boos: Lighting is actually my area of nerdiness. I’m a third-generation lighting engineer. All four of my grandparents and both parents worked in lighting, so it’s in my blood.

Lighting is essential not just for plant growth, but also for energy efficiency. Traditional grow lights are often overpowered and waste energy. We developed our own fully tunable lighting system that saves more than 50% of the energy used by conventional systems.

We can adjust both the spectrum (the colour composition) and intensity of light to match each plant species and growth stage. For example, early on, we use more blue light to encourage root growth and reduce transplant shock. Later, we switch to red light to promote leafy growth. The result is a dynamic, responsive system managed by our software.

Tom Nugent: That’s really clever. Do clients manage that themselves, or do your engineers handle it?

Elena Boos: We work collaboratively. First, we assess the project, how the space is used, what plant varieties could thrive, and what tech is required. We then install the system and hand over control to the planting supplier, who can monitor everything through our platform.

It’s designed to be “set and forget,” but we also track the environment remotely. For example, one client lost their planting over Christmas due to an HVAC fault, and it led to a dispute over who was responsible. With our monitoring system, we can detect and prevent those issues before they escalate.

Tom Nugent: That’s such an important point. One of the big challenges in biophilia is creating systems that last.

Elena Boos: Exactly. Lighting and environmental control are key to longevity. If plants are placed in conditions that don’t suit them, they slowly decline, reducing both their visual and environmental benefits. By creating stable conditions from day one, we ensure that plants thrive and continue delivering air-quality and wellbeing benefits over time.

Tom Nugent: What advice would you give to companies or schools who want to start small but still make a meaningful impact?

Elena Boos: I’ll borrow from Vanessa Champion, founder of the Journal of Biophilic Design. She once said that people overcomplicate biophilia, when really it’s simple: think about what’s good for people and do that, then think about what’s good for the planet and do that too. That’s the essence of starting small.

It’s not about expensive installations, it’s about intention and consistency.

Tom Nugent: Where do you see Visionary Farms heading in the next few years?

Elena Boos: We’re focused on becoming specialists in environment creation, delivering tech-enabled plantings designed for longevity, sustainability, and engagement. We want to collaborate with architects, designers, and planting suppliers to bring these systems into both new projects and refurbishments.

Tom Nugent: Finally, if you could give one piece of advice about connecting with plants or food systems in our own spaces, what would it be?

Elena Boos:Start small and don’t overthink it. Once people begin, they usually catch the gardening bug. That community aspect is powerful. Some of our clients have created office gardening clubs that are more engaging than after-work drinks. Getting people involved from the start, letting them choose what to grow, gives them ownership and joy.