150,000 bees, living in hives with a "Bee Hotel"
design selected by Choice associates, are already producing local
honey
NORTH BETHESDA, Md.,
Aug. 15,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Choice Hotels International,
Inc. (NYSE: CHH), one of the world's largest hotel companies, has
installed three beehives at Choice Hotel's corporate headquarters
at the Pike & Rose development in North Bethesda in
collaboration with Bee Downtown to promote sustainability and local
biodiversity with its. 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 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 United States.
The collaboration with Bee Downtown underscores Choice Hotels'
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 Hotels
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 Hotels puts people first, and being a responsible
steward of our environment is a crucial part of that. We're proud
to collaborate with Bee Downtown to host beehives that will benefit
the ecosystem in our North Bethesda community," said Megan Brumagim, Vice President of Sustainability
for Choice Hotels. "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 honeybee hives 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. 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," said
Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, Founder and
CEO, Bee Downtown.
As part of its commitment to sustainability, Choice's office
building in Pike & Rose is pursuing LEED Gold Certification and
is WiredScore Gold Certified.
About Choice Hotels®
Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) is one of
the largest lodging franchisors in the world. The challenger in
upscale and a leader in midscale and extended stay, Choice® has
nearly 7,500 hotels, representing more than 630,000 rooms, in 45
countries and territories. A diverse portfolio of 22 brands that
range from full-service upper upscale properties to midscale,
extended stay and economy enables Choice® to meet
travelers' needs in more places and for more occasions while
driving more value for franchise owners and shareholders. The
award-winning Choice Privileges® rewards program and co-brand
credit card options provide members with a fast and easy way to
earn reward nights and personalized perks. For more information,
visit www.choicehotels.com.
© 2024 Choice Hotels International, Inc. All Rights
Reserved
About Bee Downtown: 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 operates in 11 different cities up and down
the east coast and manages hives and employee engagement
programming for many of America's largest corporations including
Choice Hotels, Delta, Wellstar Health Systems, Georgia Power, Cox
Enterprises, and more. Bee Downtown is a Forbes and INC Magazine 30
under 30 Corporation, and was most recently named to the INC 5000
list of Fastest Growing Corporations in America. For more
information please visit bee-downtown.com.
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SOURCE Choice Hotels International, Inc.