Sweet Success

As someone who grew up in a house next door to 6 buzzing hives, I’ve always had an interest in bees.

When we were small, it was all about the delicious honey and trying to avoid standing on the bees that had decided to take a break on the garden lawn. Now, well, it’s still about delicious honey, but I’ve also come to appreciate just how unique and interesting the whole concept of bee-keeping is.

Honey’s great because it’s so easy to be local. And I mean really local, because bees will go far and wide to hunt nectar. This summer, Travelocity identified The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto as one of its top-5 green hotels. The 10,000 bees on its roof, which produce honey for its restaurant, are key to its success and branding as a Honey Moon Suite.

Honey is linked with sustainability – in our minds and in reality. People love honey because it's natural. Its production relies on, and is friendly to, the environment. It can also be a social solution in areas where few sustainable farming options exist. From London to Afghanistan, from NYC to Malawi, bee-keeping is a trend that’s good for the environment and good for communities.

There’s a community in Sweden that’s so convinced by honey as the symbol of sustainability that they’ve made a local currency out of it: the Djing in Lund isn’t backed up with gold, but jars of the golden stuff. Perhaps honey money isn’t the solution for the Euro crisis. But let’s hope bees keep their growing role in our ideas about sustainable success.