Companies Tackling Urban Beekeeping
Recently, we received "urban pure" honey produced by our clients at Beanfield Metroconnect. When we heard the story of where it came from, we had to find out more about the concept of Urban Beekeeping.
Bee-nfield honey (sorry we had to)
Beanfield Metroconnect is the largest independent fibre network in Toronto. They recently celebrated their 30th anniversary, where they were giving away the honey.
Beanfield works with urban beekeeping company, Alvéole to produce liquid gold. They've installed two beehives, one for each of their locations. They have beekeepers that come and take care of the hive and at the end of the season harvest the honey!
It’s everywhere!
Urban Beekeeping has been a popular topic for many years now. It aims to tackle the problem of the threatened honeybee population. Metropolitan cities like Toronto and Montreal are popular places for urban beekeeping. This is due to strict anti-pesticide laws and local green spaces filled with diverse plants.
Beehives are existing on the rooftops of schools, hotels and businesses all over the city. Our friends at CBC and University of Toronto have been doing it for some time.
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A post shared by Alvéole (@alveolebuzz) on Feb 7, 2018 at 7:36am PST
A creative twist from Sid Lee
At the Design Thinkers conference, we heard from Laura Stein, the Creative Director at Sid Lee. She explained that they have beehives on the rooftop of their Queen West Toronto office.
Besides producing honey, they wanted to do more to raise awareness for U.B and it's impact. That's how the comic book Paula & Nate started, telling the love story of Paula the bee and Nate the flower. Complete with custom packaging, a line of soap and custom merch, a brand was born!
Bees- coming to a rooftop near you
With companies like Alvéole, urban beekeeping is becoming more accessible. As more businesses join in they can help spread the word and take part in this bigger conversation. Bees are an essential part of the ecosystem, let's try and give them a proper home!
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A post shared by Alvéole (@alveolebuzz) on Apr 5, 2018 at 10:30am PDT