In collaboration with ALVÉOLE, two bee hives are installed on the roof of the shopping centre. This urban beekeeping program is the logical continuation of our desire to contribute to the various environmental issues of our time. THE INVISIBLE URBAN WORKER Urban beekeeping creates alternatives: local honey, garden pollination throughout the city, and overall perennial greening. The world population of bees is in dramatic decline, what with climate change, widespread use of pesticides, habitat loss and new diseases and parasites. The phenomenon is alarming because bees play a major role in fruit, vegetable and nut production: about a third of what we eat relies on their pollination. But cities, contrary to what we may believe, are truly the best place for bees: there are strict anti-pesticide laws, untapped floral diversity and largely unused rooftop space. DID YOU KNOW THAT: Bees usually visit trees, plants and flowers within a 5 km radius of their hive. A hive has 50,000 bees but only one queen, who lays 2,000 eggs a day. Altruistic to the core, bees dedicate their lives to the well-being of the colony. Unlike mosquitos and wasps, honeybees rarely sting. When they do, they die immediately. HONEY BY THE BOROUGH In Canada, 75% of honey comes from elsewhere. There is no say on whether it is blended, cut with corn syrup, or GMO. For the sake of quality and transparency, it would be ideal for consumers and sellers alike if we could rely more heavily on local honey. Each of Montreal's neighbourhood honeys has a unique colour and taste. Urban honey is not at all polluted; quite the contrary. There are less pesticides in urban honey than there are in certain honeys from the countryside. Alvéole's neighbourhood honey stems from artisanal production, wherein honey is extracted separately from individual neighbourhood hives. This lets us celebrate the floral variations unique to each microhabitat.