Contributed by Leigh-Kathryn Bonner
bee downtown
What do the New York Stock Exchange, Delta Airlines and Microsoft have in common nowadays? Well, it turns out the latest buzz is about honeybee hives situated at their corporate headquarters.
Founded by NC State alumna and company CEO Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, the Bee Downtownsocial enterprise program has been installing beehives on corporate campuses across the southeast since 2015 in an attempt to reintroduce agriculture back to urban areas. The program’s team of 14 employees also provides leadership development programming to many of the country’s leading corporations.
With over 500 beehives up and down the East Coast, the vast initiative extends from New York City to Tampa and Orlando, including metropolitan areas such as Charlotte, the D.C area and Richmond, Virginia. The program proudly partners with large corporations such as MetLife, Cisco, Cox Enterprises, Georgia Power and Dominion Energy.
Bee Downtownaligns its mission with several technological companies such as Invisalign, AT&T and Biogen. Employees at these companies enjoy several rare opportunities.
“[They can] put on suits, work the beehives with us, participate in honey classes and even keep the honey they produce,” Bonner said. “They fall in love with it, and we invite them to be a part of agriculture.”
As it turns out, the young CEO is not new to the world of bees. Bonner spent her childhood on her family’s farm in Farmville, North Carolina, which is about an hour outside Raleigh. While Bonner jokes that her mom had to work on the farm while her job was just to enjoy it, anyone can fall in love with agriculture.
“People don’t necessarily have to become farmers to fall in love with agriculture and the agricultural process,” Bonner said. “If we invite them to have fun, then it can change how they look at the world for the rest of their lives.”
Bonner majored in international studies, which allowed her to explore the realm of marketing and gain interpersonal skills. She learned how to think quickly on her feet, and asked her landlord at her off-campus apartment if she could keep honeybee hives in her room. When she received a distinct “no” for an answer, she decided to present her idea to American Tobacco Campus (ATC). ATC hosted the Burt’s Bees, headquarters, where Bonner was then interning.
Bonner took the initiative to place three hives on the roof of ATC, which drew the attention of local media and other companies inquiring about bringing bees to their own campuses. Her motivation led to the founding of Bee Downtownseven years ago, while still a junior in college.
Bee Downtown’s website reveals that “95% of all participants in ‘Bee Downtown’programming say they are prouder to work for their companies because of its involvement with creating healthy honeybee populations.” Bonner implemented her new passion right at home in NC State’s on Centennial Campus in 2017, where she started what is now seven hives with 150,000 honeybees.
But beyond employee fulfillment through Bee Downtown, Bonner emphasizes its environmental impact, central to the enterprise’s mission. The wellbeing of bees and their hives have been in the spotlight of the scientific community for the past few years. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, 70% of plants would be unable to reproduce or provide food without the pollination of native honey bee species. Moreover, the same study illuminates that of the 100 crop varieties that provide 90% of the world’s food, 71 are pollinated by bees.
“My goal was to always be able to bring agriculture back into cities, and to help people have this renewed respect for our farmers and our agricultural systems,” Bonner said. “But it is truly an amazing impact that we’ve seen over the last seven years, it changes people’s lives. It makes them want to be better environmental stewards, and makes them want to go plant a garden in their backyard, it inspires them to go talk to their children after school, about the bees and what their company is doing to help the environment.”
Looking ahead, Bee Downtown is growing at an accelerated pace as it expands to Texas. Moreover, their most recent project involved installing bee hives at the Microsoft headquarters in SoHo, NYC. The company is currently focused on extending their influence in what Bonner describes as the “southern smile” — mainly, states in the southeast.
For now, it appears the honey buzz is far from over — agriculture is here to stay.