Charlotte office buildings abuzz over newest employees in effort to bring others back
Bees are buzzing about in Charlotte thanks to multiple companies that have put up beehives as corporate sustainability projects, and as an attraction to employees.
Charlotte-based SPX FLOW, an industrial manufacturing company, set up their two hives this summer. Charlotte local, Scott Ross, is the bee hobbyist in charge of the hives.
“The first time we put them in, I had lots of people coming down and looking and asking questions,” he said. “I always like it here because everybody’s really interested.”
Two hives may not seem like a lot, the company’s Vice President of Enterprise Safety, Quality and Sustainability Tracy Beaudry said. But SPX FLOW’s beekeeping project combined with other hives in the area can help each company’s sustainability goals, and make progress in boosting local bee populations.
Here are five things you need to know about SPX FLOW’s and other corporate beehives in Charlotte:
Ballantyne is busy with bees
The manufacturer’s beehives sit in the treeline of its headquarters at 13320 Ballantyne Corporate Pl. The two hives came in three-pound boxes of about 10,000 bees, each, Ross said.
The idea came from Ross’s wife, who works at SPX FLOW’s cafeteria. She volunteered her husband as the property’s official beekeeper.
They thought it would be an interesting project for the company, which prides itself on its sustainability efforts, and could contribute local honey to the headquarters’ cafeteria, said facilities manager, Jennifer Honaker.
SPX FLOW isn’t the only company putting beehives in Ballantyne, though. Local real estate agency, Northwood Office, has 14 hives.
“The trend has really picked up,” Paul Cattieu, Northwood Office’s director of sustainability, said. “And we have started looking at adding apiaries at some of our outside market properties nationwide.”
Honey sweetens the deal
SPX FLOW plans on using the beehive’s honey at the headquarters’ cafeteria, Honaker said, and will jar the honey for sale.
This is the first season having the hives, Ross said, so he will not be able to harvest honey this year. Next year, he is hoping to have some harvest-ready honey.
Ross bottled his own honey at home after he started beekeeping in 2015. He was living in the Catskills at the time, and it was a hobby his wife suggested he take up in his retirement that would complement her gardening, he added.
“I myself never pictured being a beekeeper,” he said.
After the couple moved to Charlotte last October, he kept up with his hobby.
“The taste structure is so different from region to region that I’m really curious to see how the honey tastes around here,” he said.
Northwood Office’s beehive collection is more established than SPX FLOW’s. Honey is already flowing for the real estate firm.
“We have incorporated the honey into our menu at The Ballantyne Hotel, and it is sold at our community events such as markets (and) Earth Day activities,” Cattieu said.
The firm also gives jars of its local honey to customers, he said.
Bees have a stigma
The fear of being stung by a bee sometimes prevents people from seeing them as creatures that are vital to the environment, said Beaudry.
“We need to educate people that they’re not going to bother you,” she said.
The company had to consider people who are afraid of bee stings or those with deadly allergies when implementing the hives. Ross put up signs around the area informing people of the bees’ presence, he said.
Ross likes to show people that the bees really don’t want to sting them.
“I show people up before I throw my suit on, I’ll go out there in shorts and I’ll walk up to about three to five feet of the hive and they won’t bother me,” he said
Education is the best way to show people that having bees around is a good thing, said Amy Aussieker, executive director of Envision Charlotte, a sustainability non-profit.
The banking firm Ally sponsors three beehives in Envision Charlotte’s Innovation Barn at 932 Seigle Ave.
“We brought the hives in because they’re great education for people to understand how bees work in our daily lives and how important they are,” she said.
Bees are only one part of a sustainability model
Ally has a large focus on sustainability, Aussieker said, adding she loves seeing businesses find creative ways to contribute to their sustainability goals, like bees.
“If you look at the companies that have bees, typically it’s a part of their overall sustainability focus,” she said. “Having different companies with bees just showcases how Charlotte views sustainability.”
The beehives are the newest sustainability project for SPX FLOW’s home base, but the company also uses biodegradable utensils at its cafeteria, and composts the food.
“Setting up our composting program was really easy,” Honaker said. “A lot of the green initiatives are not as hard to integrate into what you’re already doing.”
It is important for businesses to have a stake in the environment, Beaudry said. The problem of climate change is too big for one group to tackle alone.
“You need a group like SPX FLOW in the Ballantyne area and other corporate centers around that will allow some out of the box thinking,” Ross said about using bees to create an attraction for employees and meeting sustainability goals.
The buzz is national
Charlotte is not the only city with companies buzzing about bees.
Computer chip manufacturing company, Intel, put five beehives at its campus in Santa Clara, CA. back in 2012, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company also has a beekeeping club.
Urban beekeeping company Alvéole has been helping companies install beehives, some to bring workers back to the office post-pandemic, according to the New York Times.
Alvéole told the Times that its revenue increased 666% since the pandemic began.
Back in the Carolinas, urban beekeeping company Bee Downtown has put beehives on 70 buildings across the Southeast since 2015.
The beekeeping company uses the beehives it installs to teach employees lessons about teamwork.
“People remember those (lessons) in a way that sitting in a class and being told what it means to be a leader won’t,” Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, founder of Bee Downtown told the Observer last February.
Ross hopes his two beehives will continue to thrive so he and SPX FLOW can continue the project for years to come, he said.
“We have two hives here,” he said. “I’m hoping next year if the building allows it and the construction doesn’t interfere we can have maybe three hives or four hives.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2023 at 10:04 AM.
