A Greener Prague – to bee or not to bee
Prague has become a leading light in the rollout of sustainable projects – particularly in the transport spheres. The city – on of nearly 30 to sign the European Circular Cities Declaration – is showing that to be innovative, you should never forget the tools nature already provide – in this case, bees.
The circular economy policy discussions in Brussels often centre around those ‘hard to reach’ areas of sustainability; namely, aviation, shipping and lorries. Policymakers are eager to learn of new ways to reduce the impact of these sectors and gather greater data on the impact of practices.
Prague Airport has been using bees to monitor their airports environment, as well as the immediate vicinity in which the bees roam, since 2011. Bees being bees, these hard-working Hymenoptera will spend their lives working hard collecting pollen and consequently environmental data for the airport to monitor.
The honey produced from the Prague Airport bees is collected and analysed each year to monitor any foreign elements and track the changes annually. The airport is also able to monitor the pollen collected by bees and this biomonitoring which is carried out by bees is a unique source of data to demonstrate the state of the airport’s environment. The mere fact that they can legally sell the honey is a good sign of the environment around the airport.
Prague airport is working to be carbon neutral by 2030 and projects like this will enable the airport to monitor the practical impact of their various sustainable projects and no we shall see beehives in many airports in the future – particularly given the changes to aviation which must take place over the next decade. Let us hope the bees continue to produce delicious honey with the introduction of sustainable aviation fuels on the horizon.
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