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PHOTO BY TOMMY BELL
D U R H A M ’ S
IN THE BUSINESS OF BEES
B
In an effort to rebuild healthy honey bee populations, Bee Downtown is taking to our roofs
Bee Downtown got its start
each, serve to help Beekee pin Interes g Tours rebuild honey bee learning ted in Bee Dow more? populations and Durham ntown offers simultaneously hive tou rs. Sig beedown up at provide a sustainable ntown.o rg. marketing tool for the companies who purchase them. “With more emphasis than ever being placed on corporate sustainability,” Leigh-Kathryn says, “partnering with Bee Downtown allows businesses to show customers their commitment to the environment.” – Laura Zolman Kirk DM
at the American Tobacco Campus when founder and fifth-generation beekeeper LeighLaunched Kathryn Bonner asked Michael Goodmon Fall 2014, Leigh-Kathryn’s junior year – vice president of real estate at Capitol at N.C. State (she’s been pursuing the business full-time for one year) Broadcasting, which revitalized the campus – if she could place a hive on ATC’s rooftop while First Employee she was serving as an intern there. Michael Justin Maness (hired May 2016), lead beekeeper loved the idea, introduced her to the folks at ATC-headquartered Burt’s Bees (where Expansion Leigh-Kathryn installed the clear, observatory 2015: 11 hives in two locations; 2016: 44 hives in 15 locations beehive near their front door), and the concept behind Bee Downtown bloomed from there. The startup has since installed and maintained beehives for 19 businesses throughout the Triangle, including DurhamDurham became a Bee City USA after passing a resolution to adopt based Runaway, Bull Durham Beer Co., Honeygirl Meadery, the program’s practices to protect pollinators, which included the formation of the Durham Bee City Committee. American Underground, EDCI/LEAP Academy and Durham Public Schools’ Hub Farm. The hives, which house 50,000 bees 32
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