RALEIGH, N.C. — When Leigh-Kathryn Bonner was working as an intern during her junior year at NC State, she asked her boss if she could put a bee hive on the company's roof. She loved keeping bees and didn't think her apartment complex would love the idea. Her boss said yes.
"It was a passion project and it was a way for me to keep bees," said Bonner.
Bonner had no idea what her little idea would become. She is the founder of Bee Downtown. It's a business that convinces other businesses to put bee hives on their roofs or other places on their property.
"What we found is companies loved the idea of bringing agriculture to their campus," said Bonner.
Delta, IBM and Chick-fil-A are among the companies who have joined the "Bee Team" as Bonner likes to call it. The small company she started in 2014 is now flourishing meaning she spends her a lot of her time meeting with CEO's.
"It's very humbling," she said.
She has found her clients enjoy having the bees on campus because it gives the employees a chance to learn something new and she says people can learn a lot from how bees operate and work together.
"Employees put on suits with us, they take tours with our beekeepers, they go through leadership development courses and learn about how a healthy hive looks like a healthy business," said Bonner.
The hives lead to a healthy community. Around the time Bonner started Bee Downtown, the United States had lost 44% of its bee hives. That's a problem because bees contribute millions to crop production.
"Honeybees are responsible for every third bite of food we eat and studies show honey bees really do thrive in urban environments," Bonner said.
Which is why she decided to bring them to cities. Bonner has gotten a lot of attention for her environmental and entrepreneurial efforts. She's been named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list and also won
WRAL.com's Voters' Choice Awards Woman of the Year
"People love the bees. They want to be around the bees."
And that's good for business for Bonner and good news for those in the hives.
