en Sustainable Architecture environment Sustainable Architecture environment Research Paper Research Paper <p>This paper classifies green envelopes as green roofs and green walls according to effective factors, which were derived from literature to compare the green envelopes&rsquo; thermal and energy performance in a more effective way. For this purpose, an extensive literature review was carried out by searching keywords in databases and studying related journal papers and articles. The research method for this study was bibliographic and logical reasoning. The paper proposes five classification factors: contextual factors, greenery factors, scale factors and surface and integration factors. It also demonstrates the influence of physical and geometrical properties of plants and their supporting structures on the thermal performance of green envelopes. The paper argues that climatic conditions also have an important role on the thermal behavior of green envelopes and it determines the types of greenery integration into building envelopes.</p> Green roof, Green wall, Thermal function, Energy performance, Living envelope. 100 111 http://ijaup.iust.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-11-415-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 E. Najafi elanajafi@gmail.com 180031947532846001767 180031947532846001767 No School of Architecture and Environmental Design (I.U.S.T.) M. Faizi mfaizi@iust.ac.ir 180031947532846001768 180031947532846001768 Yes School of Architecture and Environmental Design (I.U.S.T.) A.M. Khanmohammadi Khanmohammadi@iust.ac.ir 180031947532846001769 180031947532846001769 No School of Architecture and Environmental Design (I.U.S.T.) F. Mehdizade Saradj mehdizadeh@iust.ac.ir 180031947532846001770 180031947532846001770 No School of Architecture and Environmental Design (I.U.S.T.)