The international renowned Bee Centre in Samelsbury, Preston, is celebrating a new link with environmentally-aware construction products company JACKON. The company makes polystyrene-based insulating elements for the construction of low energy buildings - and it also manufactures beehives, which it is already selling to customers in Europe.
Its new year-long link with The Bee Centre will involve the donation of 200 beehives to the Centre. With a retail value, including all accessories, of up to £250 each, the beehives are to be used in starter kits for school environmental projects.
This initial donation will be followed up with related support activity to be unveiled during the coming year.
With its support for The Bee Centre, JACKON is making explicit the link between its products and the environment. The beehives that it is donation are manufactured by JACKON from the company's own polystyrene bead. They will last a lifetime and provide better insulation than timber alternatives in the winter.
"Single use plastics are getting a bad press at the moment - and our misuse of them is certainly causing a massive environmental problem." says Colin Higham, managing director of Jackon UK Ltd. "However, there is a positive side too. Our products last a lifetime, have vey impressive insulation properties when used in construction projects and cause minimal environmental impact, if manufacturing processes are carried out properly."
The link with The Bee Centre give s a focus on to what is, along with the plastics issue, one of the most worrying aspects of the current environmental crisis, namely the threat to pollinating bees, whose activities are critical both to nature and to many aspects of our own food production.
Simon Cordingley of The Bee Centre says: "Our work is centred around the important environmental story of pollination carried out by bees. It's about generating awareness in schools, colleges and local communities about the importance of our native bees and the threats to them. The localised bee populations that we breed are based on the native black bee. We have used polystyrene beehives in the past, so we are familiar with the advantages, compared to timber alternatives. To receive 200 of those from JACKON, of a proven type which they already sell in Scandinavia, is a massive and welcome boost for our work.
"This is a big project. It will enable us to engage with more than 100 schools, carry out training and reach thousands of people over the coming year. We find that schools get very enthusiastic about bees, and the interest goes far beyond the biology class. They can weave the bee theme through their other subjects. We have even had schools dedicate whole weeks of assemblies to bees - the subject really catches their imagination."
As well as donating product, JACKON will also be supporting community engagement work and education which The Bee Centre is carrying out in the coming months. More information regarding bees, pollinators and this project can be found at https://thebeecentre.org/home/.