Australia’s urban areas play an important role in supporting a diverse range of flora and fauna, including supporting bees and other pollinators and improving soil quality. To support the cause and take action to promote urban biodiversity, the team at Kingspan Insulated Panels, St Mary’s, recently participated in a half-day workshop with PlantingSeeds Projects. This partnership, part of Kingspan’s 10-year Planet Passionate sustainability program, also contributes to the B&B Highway initiative.
The B&B Highway initiative, a collaborative venture between PlantingSeeds and CSIRO, aims to promote awareness and education about plant regeneration in urban environments. The workshop, which included a briefing on local biodiversity and the critical pollination process, concluded with a hands-on activity where participants filled planter boxes with soil and native plants. PlantingSeeds focuses on biodiversity, pollination, and implementing positive, practical, and scalable initiatives.
The on-site work in St. Mary’s involved building planters using offcut materials and filling them with native plants endemic to the area. PlantingSeeds’ focus is to support local pollinators and help urban centres become biodiversity hotspots. During the workshop, participants engaged in hands-on activities such as preparing planter boxes filled with native plants. Moreover, the team worked to establish a ‘pollinator corridor’ near the workshop site to extend the reach of the B&B Highway project.
The B&B Highway project is a habitat regeneration program initiated by PlantingSeeds, with the backing of state and federal grants. It supports biodiversity and sustainability by creating ‘B&Bs’ (bed and breakfasts for birds, bees, butterflies, and biodiversity) at strategic urban locations across Australia. These ‘B&Bs’ serve as habitats for pollinators, offering rest and rejuvenation for species facing population declines.
Not just limited to flora, the initiative also incorporates school gardens, enhancing biodiversity, and introducing native stingless beehives. These bees, despite their stingless nature, are potent pollinators. Their presence is not harmful to students or staff with anaphylaxis. As part of the initiative, students participate in scientific lessons about the importance of pollinator species and engage in ongoing citizen science projects, monitoring their school’s native bee populations. Some students, for example, are designing insect hotels as part of their involvement.
Looking ahead, PlantingSeeds has planned a series of projects for the coming year, including school visits and urban projects. These initiatives are designed to educate a wider audience about the critical role local pollinators and biodiversity play in sustaining our environment, and working with companies such as Kingspan is key to the program’s success.
Additional future projects include the development of an interactive online platform. This platform will let students, teachers, and community members track the progress of the B&B Highway project, learn more about the importance of pollinators, and find out how they can contribute to the initiative.
