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As we head into the summer, with its longer days and bursts of colour, we are proudly embracing the spirit of World Bee Day 2024, observed on 20 May each year.   

Today, we join others around the world in marking the annual day designed by the United Nations to highlight the importance of conservation efforts to protect bees and other pollinators, who are key contributors to our global biodiversity and food security.  

Bees of Bloomsbury 

We would be remiss not to pay tribute to our resident bees here at the University. We have proudly cared for a colony for 11 years now, pollinating our lush outdoor spaces such as Gordon and Woburn Square, as well as other parks in the vicinity. 

The honey is usually extracted during mid-summer, leaving the bees enough time to replenish their stocks before winter. The honey is extracted using a spinning barrel that pushes the honey to the edges of the hive. 

“We use the bees and honey as an engagement tool, visiting the bees allows us to spark conversations and interest in the local urban biodiversity,” explains Kate, Sustainability Communications and Engagement Officer for the ������Ƶ. 

“We will be using the honey we harvest as an engagement tool, presenting it to students and staff who do something positive for sustainability.” 

And for sweet-toothed visitors to the University’s recently revamped BLOOM @ Senate House, a  study space and cafe for students and researchers, comes a delicious added incentive to reflect on the natural world. 

“For World Bee Day 2024, we are giving our honey to the chefs in Senate House and have tasked them with creating a very sweet menu – featuring ������Ƶ honey. They'll be serving up honey and lemon muffins, honey thyme chicken and honey roasted butternut squash and spinach bake” says Kate, about the range of special dishes on offer to students and staff today. 

Sustainable conference and event hire in the heart of ������Ƶ

But for us, sustainability is not just a buzzword. We aspire to reach net zero carbon emissions, are working on campaigns to reduce waste and increase recycling, and continually work to create an ever more sustainable campus and event space. A new sustainability strategy is planned for release later in 2024. 
 
And as a ������Ƶ venue, we always take steps to ensure that every award ceremony, event or conference held within our Art Deco walls and range of outdoor spaces has a positive impact. That’s why event planners can book our venue with peace of mind, knowing that our hospitality team aim to keep waste to a minimum and can create specialised sustainable menus for you: our Executive Chef Piotr Krawczyk-Plonka designs menus around seasonal ingredients, sourced locally wherever possible, with any species on the Marine Conservation Society ‘fish to avoid’ list kept off menus. We highly recommend asking for a plant-forward or low carbon menu when you hold an event with us and judge your numbers as accurately as possible to avoid food waste. 

Kate adds, “We have a wide variety of spaces for a wide variety of purposes across the University estate – so no matter what your event, just like we provide a home for our resident bees, we hope we can provide a home for your next function, here in the heart of Bloomsbury.  

If you get a chance to walk around the ������Ƶ estate when you next hold an event with us, perhaps you’ll spot our bees, buzzing past you.” 

Find out more about UoL's  sustainable event spaces.