FAIRMONT CHATEAU WHISTLER BUILDS POLLINATOR BEE HOTEL TO SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE URBAN FOOD PRODUCTION
New hotel making a buzz in Whistler – Bee hotel one of 16 across Canada built in partnership with Burt’s Bees to provide safe habitat for solitary bees to rest and reproduce –
Unlike honeybees, which live in group hives, solitary bees nest on their own, often in hollow branches and sticks, while foraging to feed their young. Loss and fragmentation of habitat leaves hundreds of thousands of bees without space to nest each year, and without a safe place to lay eggs.
Fairmont Chateau Whistler’s new bee hotel will provide a safe habitat for solitary bees to ‘check-in’ and help to sustain the next generation of urban pollinators. It is one of 16 built across the country this spring thanks to the WILD FOR BEES partnership which includes Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Burt’s Bees Canada, Pollinator Partnership Canada and Sustainable TO. Building + Architecture.
“Solitary bees are a critical part of sustainable urban food production and habitat loss is a real impediment to bees’ ability to pollinate much of the food we rely on across Canada,” said Jane Mackie, vice president, Fairmont Brand. “By building these bee hotels from coast to coast, we are doing our part to build a more sustainable world.”
For more than a decade, through its Bee Sustainable initiative, which is part of the luxury hotel brand’s larger Fairmont Sustainability Partnership program, Fairmont has committed itself to improving the overall health and conservation of bee species globally, and has built more than 20 apiaries and eight pollinator bee hotels at properties around the world.
Fairmont Chateau Whistler has been a local leader in bee sustainability since June 2013 when the rooftop garden became home for 120,000 honeybees who lived within four hives. Now there are 12 hives residing on the rooftop, currently housing over 180,000 honeybees, which will grow to around 300,000 by the end of the summer season.
To celebrate the installation of the new bee hotel, Fairmont Chateau Whistler will be highlighting pollinator-inspired menu items throughout the month of June and Burt’s Bees lip balms will be on sale on property.
Furthermore, the hotel is encouraging all Sea to Sky residents to consider installing a small bee hotel in their backyard to help blanket the region with safe spaces for bees to reproduce. Despite common misconceptions, solitary bees are very small and often undetectable, simply laying eggs, pollinating flowers and plants and continuing on their way once their eggs are hatched. Those interested in building a bee hotel can reference this handy how-to guide.
The 16 new bee hotels built in 2015 include six located at Fairmont properties in Vancouver, Whistler, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Quebec City and ten in public spaces across the country in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Halifax. This year’s coast-to-coast program follows the successful launch of the bee hotel program in 2014, when the first pollinator bee hotel debuted atop the iconic Fairmont Royal York along with four others across the Greater Toronto Area.