2022 was a banner year for Bentley's "Flying Bees," which produced a record 1,000 jars of honey from the company's Excellence Centre for Honey Production. Bentley founded the Excellence Centre as part of its #GOTOZERO sustainability initiative to promote biodiversity around the grounds of its campus.
Gallery: Bentley’s Honey Bee Production
The "Flying Bees" started as a colony of 120,000 indigenous honey bees in 2019 and has since grown to over 600,000 spread across ten active bee hives. To cultivate the hive, Bentley teamed with "Buckley Bees," who are responsible for maintaining the health of the colony and producing the honey. They ensure each honeycomb frame is spun to extract every drop of honey, which is drained, filtered, and decanted before being jarred.
As Bentley describes it, the extraction and jarring processes are handled with the same "attention to detail and excellence that is expected of the Bentley brand." Once the honey is properly decanted, it is carefully packaged in elegant jars. Then it is offered as a unique gift to VIP visitors and guests to the Bentley headquarters in Crewe.
According to board member Peter Bosch, "Not only are these amazingly hard workers contributing to our local biodiversity, in my opinion, they are also the producers of some of the finest quality honey in the world, taking inspiration from their counterparts in our Excellence Centre for Vehicle Finish."
The Excellence Centre for Honey Production is one of many initiatives Bentley launched to promote and improve site sustainability at its factory. It's also planted over 100 trees around the factory grounds and built birdhouses and hedgehog boxes that dot the campus. Other activities include planting flora and fauna, including more than 5,000 daffodil bulbs, all of which are intended to improve the local environment. More recently, the company teamed with The Macallan to promote recycling and produce bottles made from recycled Bentleys.
As a result of Bentley's efforts, the company will celebrate five years of carbon neutrality at the Crewe factory next year. The company credits its biodiversity and sustainability efforts as part of that success. However, the company is not done. It is currently planning new initiatives to improve its environmental impact further and ensure its site and business operations continually reflect the company's ambitions to become "the leader in sustainable luxury mobility.”
