PODCAST: How beehives are becoming a big building amenity

James Cook: If you're listening to this podcast, then you probably, like me, are the kind of person who thinks that buildings should aspire to be more than just steel and concrete. To explore this idea, we recently traveled 745 miles north of JLL's Chicago headquarters to Montreal to learn about a company that believes commercial buildings can be home to something special. Alvéole uses bees and beehives, plus other natural things like rooftop gardens, to improve tenant engagement. In this special documentary edition of Trends and Insights, we're heading to a very cold Montreal rooftop to explore beekeeping and other nature-based solutions that can redefine the connections between tenants and the urban environment.

This is Trends and Insights: The Future of Commercial Real Estate. My name is James Cook, and I am a researcher for JLL.

James: It's not the right time of year for us to do this, but this is when I was in town. So we're heading up to check out the bee setup. How many did you say that you have? How many buildings are you in around here?

Declan: In Montreal, we have about 300 buildings that we operate in. We do all types of pollination initiatives.

James: All types? Okay, so we are now walking outside onto a rooftop terrace. We are encircled by large skyscrapers, large towers, but we're on a very nice-looking terrace. I'm sure this is wonderful in the spring or summertime.

Declan: I mean, the trees actually bloom and have leaves. You kind of have to imagine it currently. But yes, there's a whole garden happening here. The bees are in the back, and I'll take you there in a second.

James: Here are the bees. So they are covered and insulated? Is that what's going on right now?

Declan: Yeah, so there are four boxes here and each of them has a colony. Each of these colonies probably has 50,000 bees inside of them actively. A lot of people ask what they do over the winter. And they just stay there. They're kind of shivering as a group, kind of like penguins in the Antarctic where they're taking rotations at the exterior just to basically survive throughout the whole winter, whether that's four or six months that they're there until we kind of get spring and hotter times. So for now, they're just feeding off what honey reserves they have.

James: Alright, Declan, let's go inside where it's warm and we can sit down and talk some more because I have some questions for you.

[They move to the building's lobby]

James: So we took an elevator down to the building's lobby and we found a somewhat out-of-the-way couch where we could have a conversation.

Declan: So my name is Declan Rankin Jardin. I am one of the co-founders of Alvéole. Alvéole is really a turnkey service where we're providing nature solutions for commercial real estate. And so our claim to fame is a beekeeping service where we'll set up a beehive and connect tenants with these kinds of experiential workshops around bees. And so connecting people to the nature around them in cities and urban environments.

James: So it's a service that is offered as an amenity to, you know, a landlord to offer to tenants. How many buildings overall do you have some kind of setup at?

Declan: So, roughly 2,500. And so we started in Montreal, Canada, where we are now. And have expanded across Canada into the major cities there. And have been in the U.S. for the last five years as well. We're in London, in Amsterdam, Paris, of course, and some of the bigger cities in Germany.

James: 2,500. How much upkeep is involved, how many people are required in a city to keep all these beehives safe and up and running?

Declan: We have a very large roster of beekeepers. A typical beekeeper will have a busy day, you know, visiting five, six sites every day, making sure not only that the bees are healthy but then checking in with clients, giving workshops.

James: Where do you think the greatest opportunity is in terms of property type? So we're here in an office building right now. Do you think the future is okay, we could be anywhere or we really see growth in, I don't know, multifamily, retail. I mean, how do you think about that?

Declan: Mixed use seems to be a trend in commercial real estate. And so, buildings themselves have to start becoming more mixed use. And I think what we're doing is really just showing that a building can be more than just an office space, more than just the retail space. We're using our bees to connect to a bigger purpose around the space.

James: What does the name Alvéole mean?

Declan: Great question. It's like a single hexagon. So the actual cavity of a honeycomb. In your heart, you have different portions that are alveoli. It's just like a space that is used for multiple different things. And so in a beehive, they have these hexagon combs that are really like cocoons for the new bees, but also for honey, they put all kinds of different things in them.

James: That's fascinating. So tell me about the founding of Alvéole. Like you were sitting around and you said, we think buildings need bees. Like, is that how it came about?

Declan: It's founders – Alex and I – we've known each other since we were teens. We're actually musicians; that's how we got to know each other. But then from there, we started working on a bee farm, Alex's uncle's, out in Manitoba, which is in the middle of nowhere, no offense to Albertans. And it's a commercial farm. That was really quite an experience in terms of getting to know bees and understanding how operations work there. But being city slickers, we wanted to live in the city and have something around bees. We naturally started developing a model where we could install a beehive and engage people around the magic of bees. Naturally, when we started being approached by different companies to get permission to do that kind of setup, you naturally had to speak to the property manager or the ownership, and that's how over time we started gearing our offer towards that.

James: At some point, there is a transition from, hey, this is going to be a niche lifestyle business into this is a really big global thing. So how did that come about?

Declan: How did that come about? More than just an artistic or philosophical project. Like we could see that there was traction. And so, we started getting organized around how we're actually marketing, how we're delivering service. Once you start working with commercial real estate and the word of mouth happens, you start real growing.

James: There are a variety of different kinds of things that you might do in a building, not just, hey, we put a beehive there, but there's a whole lot more to it. Talk me through the different options you might give to a building owner of things you might do at their property.

Declan: The service offering is around tenant engagement. So with every project, we're really trying to make sure that it's not just something on the roof. There's an activation and so included in all our packages is the idea of workshops and activities. And also we have a bit of an online feature where you get a page with your updates and a bit of a feed every time the beekeeper goes by and, you know, photos will be uploaded. And so we're trying to bring the project to life. And so bees are our first thing, but then we'll get into yeah, kind of the next step, which is other types of pollinators and then kind of the most interesting stuff is around nature reporting. And so through the beehive, you can actually be analyzing a ton of different information related to floral diversity, related to pesticides to understand exactly what's happening around the building and then inform your choices around that.

James: What kind of data can you get from having the beehive?

Declan: When you send honey samples to the lab, you can actually understand all the different types of floral diversity that's in your honey. And by default, around the environment. And what we're trying to do is correlate that to an actual nature score around biodiversity indicators. When you look at some of the frameworks coming out globally, if you look at TNFD, some of the building certifications are starting to ask about biodiversity. And so we're trying to position the bees as really your biodiversity indicator.

James: What's a bit of information you might gather?

Declan: So floral diversity, collecting some of the bees that are around the hive that you can actually see what they've been in contact with. So, you can see pesticides. You can see all the different types of fertilizers that have been used. If you're looking for it, you can with eDNA, you can basically – and we're trying to find out what kind of amphibians or different types of rare species exist around the environment just by analyzing the bees. And so, it's obviously a nascent kind of thing that we're doing, but it's really pretty interesting in terms of as buildings are looking to see their impact on nature and biodiversity, we're trying to help them.

James: When you install the beehive, the one that we just looked at, it was in an accessible area where the tenants could go to. Do most of your installations, are they accessible by people? Are there worries about putting a beehive where you're going to have people, or is it pretty safe?

Declan: Yeah, safety is our main concern when installing. Insects on the roof like we really make sure that there's no risk, but obviously we've been doing it quite a bit and we know it works. The main thing is if you're 20 feet away from a beehive, you're not really going to be in contact with the bees. And so we have a whole kind of checklist before we'll do a visit before installing the bees where we find the right location, you know, sign off on all the kind of signage and make sure that everyone's aware. Basically making sure that everyone's aware of the beehive is the first step and then there's no real reason to get close to it. We're making sure that window washers don't have to anchor where the beehive is. And we make sure that that's not a concern.

James: The rooftop that we just visited, the beehive was set apart from where you would expect humans to go. Okay. You know, so it was, you could see it. It was clearly integrated, but it wasn't right where people were going to walk. The garden with the raised beds was where you really expect people to go and kind of more hang out.

Declan: And then we also have bee homes, which is for wild bees. And those are really beautiful objects that are almost like artistic installations. And those we can basically put on the street. Coming out of a door, they're actually really interesting to look at and peer in and see. It's a completely different life cycle than a honeybee. Most people aren't used to looking at them. And so we want to have that kind of rapport and we put QR codes so people can ask their questions.

James: So tell me a little bit more about that. So this is a home for a wild bee or bee colony, I guess is the word.

Declan: It's solitary bees, so they don't live in families of 50,000. They're one by one and they have basically a very short life of a couple months. They'll be born in the spring. They lay maybe eight eggs over their lifetime and then die. And the eggs there spend a year before they emerge the next spring. So it's a solitary bee, but it's actually really fascinating. We have drawers where you can see the little larvae hatching, and QR codes where you can see the evolution and it's more of a yearly cycle, but it's really interesting and to know that they're kind of indicator species. So if they're doing well, you know that the environment around the building is something positive for them. They're a bit more fragile than honeybees; they're really like a delicate species. And so in many cases, we're seeing they actually do really well, and so it's positive. When normally people think of cities as urban jungles, and you know, there's nothing here, it's all concrete, it's actually not the case.

James: Using it as a promotional tool for the property, do you find that a lot of your clients will come up with creative ways to get the word out on the fact that they're doing this?

Declan: The honey beehive actually produces honey and we have a whole system of bringing the boxes down from the roof, extracting them at our facility, jarring and labeling them with the logo and bringing them back to the building, which then is obviously promotional.

James: I imagine that honey is a pretty hot commodity because I'm going to guess you probably only produce what, like a few gallons of honey or something like that, or more?

Declan: Yeah, gallons. And so you jar that up, there's not enough for everybody in the building. So that could be the great gift from the property manager.

James: What's the future for Alvéole? What's like the next thing that you think is going to be cutting edge for you guys to roll out?

Declan: For the last year, our product team has been working on what we're now calling nature risk. And it's a benchmarking score for properties. So, if you look at it from the asset lens, if you have a portfolio of properties, you can basically start benchmarking them in terms of a score that we're creating using geospatial data, raw data, and a ton of other data sources. And to start saying as a building, here is how you are benchmarking versus other buildings in terms of your impact on nature, which currently is not in high demand. If you look at commercial real estate, I think it's a little bit like most managers and owners are looking at their carbon, which is kind of the main challenge. And we're going a little further and saying, yes, carbon, but also nature. So how can a building assess its, you know, reliance on water? There's, of course, all the biodiversity, air quality, all these things. Eventually, we're saying should be ranked in some sort of score around a building's value and risk.

James: So does a building have to have a beehive in order to generate that score?

Declan: For the moment, the way we're building it, yes, but a lot of our data sources are going to be coming from a ton of places in order to get more and more accurate. And so, ideally, your score would start off somewhat relative. And the more you understand if you look at buildings, let's say in deserts versus in New York City, or in Florida where there's a lot more risk of hurricanes, you want to be prepared in terms of risk for different things.

James: If I'm a building manager and I know my nature risk score and I know how I compare it to other properties, is there an action that I can take? Like, let's say I'm not performing as well. Do you then, like, what's the next step? Is it like an actionable number?

Declan: Yeah, like the framework we're using to create this is called the LEAP framework. And so the first step is to locate, evaluate, assess and then plan to act. So really, what we're doing is helping just understand the building. So the action comes at the very end. Of course there are just actions you can take before understanding your risks. But we're really helping more on the data side. And we're using a framework that has been developed by TNFD, so TNFD stands for the Task Force on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures, and they're trying to figure out how nature should be more of a financial topic. How do you bring nature into a lot of the ways that we assess things financially?

James: Absolutely. I think that's something we really need. So, I'm glad you guys are working on that, because it's too often ignored.

Declan: We're only a year in, but what we're starting to see is that there is a lot of interest in how buildings should be interacting with nature and how they could be interacting in a more positive way. I learned to beekeep out in the country, but decided to bring it back into the city because I think what's a little unfortunate with how beekeeping is done for agriculture purposes, is it's a beekeeper managing thousands of hives all alone in a field. And what I like to say is we've flipped the model where we have, you know, one beehive and thousands of people and connecting it that way.

James: Declan, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join me in this first on a rooftop, office building lobby next to some elevators, by the way, which I'm sure are going to be featured in the background of the podcast, but whatever that's life. This is a documentary podcast we're doing today. So Declan, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been a fascinating conversation.

Declan: My pleasure. Thanks for having me, James.

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