Choice Hotels International has installed three beehives at corporate headquarters at the Pike & Rose development in North Bethesda, Maryland, in collaboration with Bee Downtown, to promote sustainability and local biodiversity. Pollinating a 3-mile radius from their hives, the estimated 150,000 honeybees housed at Choice have the potential to positively impact 18,000 acres of surrounding land. A colony can produce over 100 pounds of honey in just a matter of months. Choice associates had the opportunity to vote on the design concepts for the beehives and selected a “Bee Hotel” design concept.
Choice Hotels has partnered with Bee Downtown to provide educational and engagement opportunities for Choice Hotels associates to learn about the benefits of honeybees and beehives through honey and cheese tastings, beekeeping Q&A sessions, and hive tours. Honeybees pollinate 70 of the top 100 food crops in the U.S.
The collaboration with Bee Downtown underscores Choice’s commitment to environmental stewardship, biodiversity, and engagement, which are key components of its Room to Be Green program for the company’s franchised and managed hotels. Room to Be Green focuses on five pillars—Energy, Water, Waste, Biodiversity, and Engagement—to advance sustainability across all Choice brands and segments worldwide. Through the program, Choice-branded hotels are required to comply with utility data reporting and waste, water, and energy-saving measures by early 2025.
“Choice puts people first, and being a responsible steward of our environment is a crucial part of that,” says Megan Brumagim, vice president of sustainability for Choice Hotels, in a prepared statement. “We’re proud to collaborate with Bee Downtown to host beehives that will benefit the ecosystem in our North Bethesda community. Bees play an essential role in the health of the planet. We’re excited to contribute to our region’s biodiversity, engage our associates with educational programming, and harvest around 90 pounds per year of fresh, local honey from our very own hives.”
Bee Downtown installs and maintains beehives on corporate campuses to help rebuild sustainable agriculture while simultaneously providing year-round employee and leadership development programming to their corporate partners. Bee Downtown will maintain the three beehives at Pike & Rose, ensuring the bees are happy and healthy.
“We are delighted to have Choice Hotels join ‘America’s #1 Bee Team’ as one of our newest Corporate Hive Program partners,” says Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, founder and CEO of Bee Downtown. “At Bee Downtown, it is our goal to help leading corporations cultivate great places to work through sustainability initiatives and employee experiences all rooted in agriculture. We look forward to many wonderful years of partnership with Choice Hotels.”
