by Sangeeta Kocharekar URL Copied! I’m transfixed by the bees. They’re flying in and out of open slots on two carry-on-sized boxes made from salvaged wood. The boxes are on a gravel-lined landing, halfway up the Sheraton Hyde Park.
They’re tiny but mighty. I’m on a free tour offered by Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park , learning about the 20,000 bees that call the boxes on the hotel landing home. Usually there are about 120,000 bees but given its winter there are only about 40,000.
With ‘sustainability’ a buzzword in the Australian travel industry for the past few years, many accommodations are jumping on the bandwagon, blowing smoke, but without taking action to benefit the planet. The very best of The Latch delivered straight to your inbox. But it’s not all greenwashing — many Australian hotels have launched impactful and innovative sustainability initiatives.
Like Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park’s bees. Like any bee placed in an urban area where we had pushed them out, the bees in Sydney’s Hyde Park are re-pollinating the 80-square-kilometre radius around them. The hotel’s tours of its hives are to help people understand the role of bees in communities.
“When you introduce bees to any area, they bring in other species and that introduces other species,” says Renata Gilbert, co-founder of Rooftop Bees . The company has supplied bees to other spots in Sydney: Shangri-La , Qantas’ airport lounge and David Jones in the CBD. The honey the bees make i.
