Beehives on Antilooppi office roofs boost urban biodiversity
This summer, the real-estate owner Antilooppi’s sustainability efforts is literally getting wings. The beehives installed on the rooftops of four office buildings will support urban biodiversity and provide valuable research data about natural diversity in an urban setting.
Antilooppi as one of the largest owners of office space in the Helsinki region considers support for urban sustainable development crucial. For the summer of 2025, Antilooppi is joining forces with the HumbleBee Housing Project on an initiative with the important aim of studying and promoting urban biodiversity.
During the summer of 2025, Antilooppi’s beehives will be home to over 200,000 bees in total. The hives are on the rooftops of Porkkalankatu 22 in Ruoholahti, Hämeentie 19 and Siltasaarenkatu 10 in Hakaniemi, and Stella Business Park in Leppävaara. Over the summer, each hive will be the site of 50,000 busy honeybees, which pollinate nearby plants, aiding both biodiversity and research. HumbleBee is responsible for maintaining the beehives.
HumbleBee Housing Project, which is specialized in urban beehives, raises awareness about the pollinators’ importance, thus developing more sustainable environments for both bees and people. The project cooperates with the French bee laboratory Apilab to gather samples from the beehives for research into the local areas’ biodiversity.
“Building a more sustainable urban environment is an important part of our sustainability as we operate in the Helsinki region. Supporting and promoting biodiversity are essential elements of this, and we want to play our part in promoting natural biodiversity in the urban built environment. The beehives on our roofs this summer are a new, tangible way to do good for our immediate natural habitat, and we’re excited to see the project progress over the summer,” Chief Sustainability Officer Hannamari Koivula says.
Rooftop bees working for urban nature
The bees inhabit one hive per roof at first. By Midsummer, the bees on each roof will be divided into two hives to keep hive sizes moderate and minimize the risk of swarming. On average, the bees will pollinate plants and flowers within a two-kilometre radius from their hives, providing valuable information about the state of urban nature. All summer long, eDNA samples will be taken from the tiny research assistants’ nectar, which researchers will use to analyse the area’s flora and its diversity from a bee’s perspective.
The project includes a sweet added extra: over the summer, the bees will produce city honey.
“The apiaries are one tangible way to support natural diversity. We’re delighted to offer our roofs for a research purpose like this. As a by-product, we get sustainably produced honey from our own roofs – we’re expecting as much as 100 jars per apiary,” Koivula says.