Bringing bees (and biodiversity) to cities

Could these rooftop beehives help to revive pollinator populations?

Spotted: Bees are responsible for pollinating the vast majority of the world’s food crops, but they are under threat. In fact, around 35 per cent of invertebrate pollinators (including bees and butterflies) currently face extinction. One of the first steps to changing this is to get more people involved in saving bee colonies, which is exactly what Alvéole is working to accomplish.

The Canadian company places beehives on over 2,200 commercial building rooftops to help companies and building owners bring greater biodiversity to their sites and protect these insects. Doing so increases tenant satisfaction and engagement and helps owners earn green building credits. Alvéole also tracks engagement data, helping companies meet their sustainability goals through beekeeping and monitor their building’s impact on nature and biodiversity.

To facilitate this, Alvéole partners with building owners and managers in more than 60 cities across Europe and North America. It places hives on the buildings, looks after them, and also offers a variety of programmes that give tenants the opportunity to interact with the bees. These include workshops, personalised landscaping recommendations, tracking engagement data, producing jars of honey for tenants, and more.

Alvéole is active across Canada, the US, and Europe, having worked with companies like CBRE, Goldman Sachs, IKEA, and even New York’s Empire State Building.

Written By: Lisa Magloff