Reducing Our Carbon Footprint

摘要

In May, Dining Services at the 28,000-student University of Connecticut in Storrs purchased 100,000 bees to begin its own apiary-hives where bees are raised to produce honey-located just one mile from the main campus. Director of Dining Services Dennis Pierce says when the hives are in full production, the bees should be able to produce about 2,000 pounds of honey in a year, more than half of the amount Dining Services uses annually. "We already have a sustainability project on campus," Pierce explains. "The program is limited to Whitney dining facility and they purchase local honey at $5 per pound. By making our own honey, we won't have to pay the $5. We consume 3,800 pounds of honey annually and about 1,000 pounds of that are local honey. The payback will be much faster with our own hives." Pierce says Stephen Anthony, assistant manager, and Amy Gronus, production chef, pitched the idea to him after Anthony had taken a course in beekeeping. Gronus has done some beekeeping of her own-she owns two hives.