‘Save the bees.’ It’s become a familiar refrain as the importance of pollinators to the entire world’s ecosystems and food chains is gaining recognition.
World Bee Day is 20MAY, the perfect day to recognize one hotel chain’s “Bee Sustainable” program that has its properties housing not just two-legged guests, but also the winged, honey-making variety.
And it all started here in Canada.
'HOME SWEET HIVE'
In 2008, the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto and Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver installed honey beehives. These two urban hotels may not seem likely places for apiaries. But the thriving hives made headlines, raising awareness of the importance of bees to our world, as well as producing honey for (human) guests, and highlighting local products and food.
Fast forward over a decade, and other Fairmont properties have joined the ‘Bee Sustainable’ initiative, from the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in Seattle and Fairmont San Francisco, to Fairmont Yangcheng Lake in China and Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club in Africa.
Onsite local honey produced replaces purchased honey in the hotels’ bars and restaurants. Six rooftop honey beehives at the Royal York alone – home to 350,000 bees - are producing 450 pounds of honey every year.
Every hotel’s honey is one-of-a-kind, tasting of the nectars of dozens of indigenous flowers from humble dand
elions to cherry blossoms. And the bees do double duty, foraging up to 12 square miles, pollinating area gardens and parks as they visit over 1 million flowers for every pound of honey they produce.
WILD BEE 'HOTELS'
Not all bees produce honey. But all bees are essential pollinators.
So Fairmont broadened its groundbreaking Bee Sustainable program, building and installing wild bee ‘hotels’. These wooden structures feature sticks drilled with holes to attract wild bees in the area in need of a safe haven.
Now, millions of bees call Fairmont hotels ‘home’. Nearly two dozen honey bee hives, and a similar number of wild pollinator bee hotels grace the grounds and rooftops and terraces of Fairmont hotels around the world:
CANADA
- Fairmont Royal York - Toronto
- Fairmont Waterfront -Vancouver
- Fairmont Chateau Whistler
- Fairmont Empress - Victoria
- Fairmont Vancouver Airport
- Fairmont Le Château Frontenac - Québec City
- Fairmont Palliser - Calgary
- Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth - Montréal
USA
- Fairmont San Francisco - San Francisco
- Fairmont Washington D.C.
- Fairmont Copley Plaza- Boston
- Fairmont San Jose
- Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa - Sonoma, USA
- Fairmont Dallas
- Fairmont Olympic Hotel – Seattle
- Fairmont Orchid - Hawaii
INTERNATIONAL
- Fairmont Southampton, Bermuda
- Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club - Mount Kenya, Kenya
- Fairmont Mayakoba - Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
- Fairmont Le Montreux Palace - Montreux, Switzerland
- Fairmont Yangcheng - LakeSuzhou, China
- Fairmont Beijing - China
Bees have also become part of the hotels’ guest experiences over the years, from culinary and cocktail menu items, beekeeper courses and packages, garden and bee tours, honey tastings, and special gift items.
BEE SUSTAINABLE
Fairmont has even opened a bee hotel at parent company Accor’s global HQ in Paris. The Bee Sustainable program is a cornerstone of the company’s commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainable tourism.
The program works with the Pollinator Partnership, an organization dedicated to protecting and promoting pollinators and their ecosystems – not just bees, but also the birds, bees, butterflies, beetles, and other creatures whose pollination efforts produce one out of every three bites of food we eat.
In that way, Bee Sustainable isn’t just about sustainable tourism and supporting local foods in Fairmont hotels. The company says supporting bee habitats is part of its commitment to hotel communities, food production and the economy, noting that bees pollinate 1,000 of the 1,200 crop varieties that provide 80% of human food worldwide and contribute billions of dollars to the US economy alone.
That’s the big picture, and Fairmont is also encouraging everyone to support bees in your own backyard just as Fairmont hotels support bees on their properties. It sells mini bee hotels at fairmontstore.com – a perfect way for nature lovers to get involved, and for families to learn more about bees at home.
Learn more about the Fairmont Bee Sustainable program and the importance of honeybees and wild bees at fairmontbeesustainable.com.
