We are thrilled to announce that Meadfleet’s Bee Friendly campaign has been awarded first place in the Pollinator category in CIRIA’s Big Biodiversity Challenge. 
As the UK’s leading open space management company, we care for thousands of acres of residential open spaces, providing long-term, sustainable maintenance and development services. Much of this is green space with almost endless potential for us to create biodiverse habitats, which are welcoming and nurturing to wildlife as well as ideal for supporting wellbeing in residents. We don’t just ‘cut grass’, we really do go the extra mile.
The judge’s commented: “An inspirational project from a management company of open spaces. They have included a very community and nature focused management strategy and are to be commended. The long term impact of this project and scale is really interesting. The potential that has been identified through the land holdings is noteworthy and the judges were impressed to see that the knowledge had been embedded within the business which is very admirable.”
The Big Biodiversity Challenge invites organisations to “do one thing” which adds a “biodiversity enhancement” to construction sites, developments or existing buildings (with the caveat that it goes beyond normal business practice or pre-existing planning and construction conditions).
The competition was fierce, so we were delighted that our Bee Friendly campaign received top place in the Pollinator Category.
Paul Cassidy, Ecology and Conservation Manager at Meadfleet said: “We are delighted that our efforts to benefit wildlife in the management of open spaces continue to be recognised. It’s fantastic that the judges acknowledged our efforts to make long-term, far-reaching improvements to open space areas that will benefit pollinators. Whilst it might be seen as going above and beyond our remit as open space management company, we believe Meadfleet have an important role to play in ensuring open spaces offer enriched environments for our customers that allow wildlife to thrive. We look forward to continuing to go above and beyond to improve biodiversity on the open spaces we care for and involving our customers in this journey.”
Our Bee Friendly campaign, which we launched in 2019, is an excellent example and we’re thrilled that CIRIA have recognised its benefits. So, what’s Bee Friendly all about?
Bee Friendly – a success story
We’re committed to running the initiative for at least five years, if not longer, and our goals are ambitious, to say the least. Bee Friendly has been designed to create new habitats for bees and other pollinating insects through a programme of planting new wildflower meadows, hedgerows and thousands of mixed-species bulbs which provide valuable nectar during spring.
Our vision for the long-term future is to use this success story as a template for many more Bee Friendly flagship sites on our developments across the country. And what a success it’s been. Since we launched Bee Friendly just two years ago, we’ve been busy. With the help of our two in-house ecologists overseeing the work, we have sown over 10,000m2 of new wildflower meadows, planted more than 40,000 bulbs and over 300m of new hedgerow.
By the end of year 5, we aim to have sown:
- 23,000m2 of meadow to try and replace some of what has been lost in the UK (97% of all wildflower meadows since the 1930s)
- 1500m of new hedgerow including native shrub and tree species to provide nectar in spring, berries in autumn and natural habitats for birds and mammals
- 50,000 new bulbs in a mix of species which also provide nectar throughout spring
And what’s more, all the costs incurred by our work are being donated by Meadfleet.
Insect charity, Buglife, has been a great help since we launched Bee Friendly, advising us on some of the more technical aspects of pollinator species and how best to care for them. And as we create new habitats, they are added to Buglife’s B-Lines database which maps ‘insect superhighways’ around the UK.
Working with, and for, our customers
While these habitats are life-changing for our pollinators, they’re also extremely beneficial to residents living nearby. We’ve had the most tremendous response from hundreds of customers who value the work we do in residential open space management.
We’re encouraging customers to take part in Bee Friendly by enhancing their own gardens to make them more attractive to bees and other pollinator species. To help them do this, we have provided:
- 5,000 packs of wildflower seeds
- 2,000 bee hotels
- Information and guidance on how to make bee-friendly changes to gardens
- Updates on our website on biodiversity with tips and advice for customers to follow
Our hope is that Bee Friendly can continue to operate well into the future and as long-term custodians of open space, we are confident that we can continue to create and sensitively maintain attractive, natural habitats for many years to come.
About the BIG Biodiversity Challenge awards
This year’s BIG Biodiversity Challenge Awards Ceremony run by CIRIA (the Construction Industry Research and Information Association) were as demanding as ever – and for good reason. Biodiversity, in the construction sector, still has a long way to go and the pressure is on developers to manage the impact they have on nature during construction, as well as considering how wildlife and humans can co-exist in their finished developments. But at Meadfleet, it’s been on our agenda for some time now.
Anything which increases biodiversity opportunities in the local environment (like our Bee Friendly initiatives) are ideal.
The awards attracted strong competition from some major players in the construction industry so we are extremely pleased to receive first place in the Pollinator Category.
If you’d like to find out more about Bee Friendly, please click here.
If you’d like to read our award-winning submission, please click here.
