Wiley’s Brisbane office has welcomed 400,000 new workers to its rooftop in a new project to support the food industry by boosting Australia's bee population.
The workers – eight colonies of honey bees – are expected to produce over 360kg of honey each year, and have been added to Wiley's in collaboration with Bee One Third.
“This project is Wiley’s contribution to a thriving bee population which supports our food industry, and the bonus is plenty of fresh honey to share,” Wiley managing director, Tom Wiley said.
“One of the great things we can learn from bees is that we all win if we cooperate. The bees will enjoy our insect friendly herb garden and collect nectar and pollen from the local Woolloongabba blooms.”
Globally, Bees contribute directly to one in every three plates of food eaten, according to Wiley, meaning, one third of our global food system is wholly reliant on bee pollination.
On a larger scale, bees contribute to over 97 per cent of the global food production – from seed manufacture, all the way through to the growing of vegetables, nuts and fruits.
Bees and other insect pollinators play a vital role in dictating whether farmers receive a yielded crop at the end of the season, are relied upon by consumers, supermarkets, farmers of all foods (including oils, meat, seeds, fruits and vegetables) and pollinate food crops worth between AU$4-6 billion per year to the Australian economy.
Jack Stone from Bee One Third said it focused on collaborating forward focussed companies.
“We really look forward to comparing our Woolloongabba honey to our other harvests around Brisbane” he said.
Bee One Third aims to work with local beekeepers, and the surrounding community, to increase the local bee population and create greater social awareness about the importance of insect pollinators for Australia's food future.
“Our primary focus of what we want to achieve is to increase pollination rates with healthy, strong bee hives and create effective and efficient systems of changes for the neighbourhood.
“It’s a true contribution to the area as the bees fly within 5km of their hive – they will be visiting East Brisbane, Stones Corner, Buranda and surrounding suburbs too.”
Wiley said the honey the bees collect from around at Wiley will be shared with clients, family and friends. Anything left over will be donated to one of the charities Wiley collaborates with locally.
