Hibernia REIT has partnered with Bee Green Ireland to establish urban beehives in some of its Dublin city centre properties.
The hives have recently been installed on the rooftops of Hibernia's offices at 1 Cumberland Place, 1 Windmill Lane (1WML), Two Dockland Central and The Observatory.
The offices currently include Twitter, Autodesk, Travelport Digital, HubSpot and Core Media as their tenants.
The hives will be harvested for honey twice a year. Each hive is expected to produce up to 90 jars per harvest for distribution to people working in the buildings.
The hives will produce wax which can be turned into body balm, lip balm and candles.
Patrick Casey of Bee Green Ireland said that Dublin is a fantastic urban setting for native Irish honey bees.
"At Cumberland Place the bees are within a couple of hundred metres of Merrion Square, Pearse Square Park and the Trinity College campus which will be prime foraging ground," he said.
He also said that bees are known to travel around 3km from their hives when they get hungry, putting St Stephen's Green, Fairview Park and parts of both canals on their menu.
"It’s great that a company like Hibernia REIT who occupy ideal locations have taken an initiative to give back to both the environment and their tenants," he added.
John Cairns, from Hibernia REIT, said the company had been looking at doing this for a while.
"Now we’ve seen the appetite from our tenants and the knowledge of Patrick from Bee Green Ireland, we’re going to add more hives to as many of our properties as we can," Mr Cairns said.
He said that sustainability has and always will be central to how the company develops buildings, and how its tenants experience the properties is hugely important as well.
"This initiative captures those two priorities. Improving the country's bee population is vital for the environment, and our tenants will get to enjoy incredible, natural products from just a few floors above them," he added.
