New beehives to make their rooftop home at Centre:MK

Centre:mk are looking forward to welcoming a hive of bees to their new home on the centre roof in the coming weeks.

This comes as the latest part of the centre’s ongoing Green Roof project, where they are making use of the large rooftop surface area to provide green spaces and habitats for wildlife in the heart of the urban city centre. The roof already has a number of bird and insect boxes as well as areas of grass and wildflowers that the bees will enhance over time by pollinating.

40,000 bees will be housed in a hive on the centre roof in the first phase, with more hives coming later in the year. The bees will be looked after by local apiary, Mr Rob’s Honey, with opportunities for centre staff to learn beekeeping skills and get involved with the project. The honey the bees produce will be given away to guests, charity partners and staff.

Kevin Duffy, Centre Director at centre:mk said, “We are delighted to be welcoming the bees to the centre! Bees are a threatened species that play a vital role in our ecosystem, and we’re excited to be able to provide a habitat for them to thrive in the city centre, on our Green Roof.”

The Green Roof is part of a wider set of initiatives centre:mk have introduced to be a sustainable shopping centre, including reducing energy usage, optimising waste management, and capturing rainwater for use in the scheme. Last year alone they saved enough energy to charge 11 million mobile phones by turning off their lights 3 hours earlier and changing to efficient LED bulbs.

About centre:mk

centre:mk is one of the top shopping destinations in the UK, located 30 minutes from London, attracting over 22 million visitors each year.

Key facts:

• centre:mk is a Grade II listed building in Milton Keynes
• It spans 1.3 million sq. ft. of prime retail space with stores hosting a range of brands including All Saints, Mulberry, Charlotte Tilbury, MAC, Kylie Cosmetics, Kurt Geiger, and thousands more brands
• The tenant line up boasts that of John Lewis and Partners, H Beauty (Harrod’s concept beauty store), Marks and Spencer, Next, Hobbs, Dune, Ted Baker, River Island, and many more
• centre:mk sees a 63% ABC1 shopper classification
• Milton Keynes is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK and the 6^th most affluent catchment areas in the country