Urban Bees is in the fifth year of its partnership with auditor’s Price Waterhouse Coopers. Here’s a timeline showing the progress that’s been made to help wild bees at the company’s offices and by staff too:

2022: Better planting for bees

PWC’s London gardener, who we work with at Weil law firm, asked us how to make the terraces and roofs at PCW’s two London offices better for bees and other pollinators. As a result, he planted more fruit trees and early and late flowering perennials, shrubs and herbs at the Embankment office terraces.

2023: Bee safaris at Embankment office

We gave a series of talks to staff about different bees and their importance and how we can help them. We ran our first bee safari on August 3 and saw honeybees (other companies have hives nearby, so they forage on the PWC terraces), a Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) and a Common carder bee (Bombus pascuroum). Lavender proved the biggest hit with the bees. The second bee safari took place during a September heatwave. The lavender had gone, so the bees were on a mixture of Catmint (Nepeta), a shrub called Bluebeard or Caryopteris x clandonensis and Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum). We didn’t see much variety of bees – just the same as last month.

Comments from staff:

“Loved the bee safari. I never knew there was more than one type of bee and that only one makes honey.”

“Can’t wait to start planting some of these flowers in my garden and see which bees arrive.”

“What a great way to spend my lunch hour. I’ve learned so many new things.”

“Looking forward to seeing different bees next spring.”

“My daughter is going to love this bee guide. Maybe they can do something similar at her school.”

2024: Bee hotels and boxes installed and workshops

• Installed bee hotels for cavity-nesting bees and a bee observation box at EP so staff can see the life cycle of a Red mason bee nesting in the box – Red mason bees nested in the hotels and observation boxes on 8th and 3rd floor terraces.
• Installed a bee sand planter for ground-nesting mining bees – no evidence it is being used.
• Put up signs about the different bees staff may see visiting the terraces
• Ran summer bee safaris and bee hotel workshops for London staff
• Visited regional offices (Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester) to run bee hotel workshops where in total 90 staff assemble flat-pack wooden bee hotels to take home and learned about bees and how to help them
• Advised contractors how to make terraces and rooftops in regional offices better for bees and biodiversity.

2025: More safaris and regional workshops

• Presented an introduction to bees webinar for World Bee Day, May 20
• Delivered bee hotel workshops in Birmingham (pictured above), Leeds, Manchester and Bristol
• Following our report to contractors, planting has been improved on the Manchester terraces where we ran bee hotel workshop in July.
• Bee safaris on the terraces at the EP offices

More London

In November 2025, at More London, Level 3 Terrace, we installed bee hotels and put up a post for an observation box to install in spring 2026 in the knowlege that there is now enough forage for the bees to feed on in spring. On Level 3 and Level 1, we also attached bird boxes to silver birch trees for birds to nest in, but they may also be used by Tree bumblebees once the chicks have fledged.

2026

• Bee safaris at More London and EP to learn to ID different bees and to see the life cycle of the bees in the bee observation box
• Bee hotel workshops in Glasgow, Belfast, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, London.
• Improve spring forage at regional offices
• Work with gardener, Matt, to improve native planting on terraces at EP following biodiversity report.