About two years ago, we wrote about an amazing bee-friendly initiative in the Dutch city of Utrecht. Looking to make its urban space as accommodating as possible to pollinators, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands decided to adorn hundreds of its bus stops with green rooftops — thus transforming them into pollinator-friendly havens.
Now, the UK city of Leicester is following in the footsteps of Utrecht by installing a new network of bee bus stops. Dubbed the Living Roof, the network is made of 30 bus stops that have been topped with a mix of wildflowers and sedum plants — a favorite among pollinators whose populations have been declining at an alarming rate in recent years.
As part of the environment-friendly initiative, the city of Leicester has partnered with media company Clear Channel, which helped transform the bus stops into bee sanctuaries. On top of providing shelters to pollinators, the resulting green hubs also benefit urban biodiversity and climate resilience, store rainwater, help reduce the urban heat island effect, clean the air, and generally make the city greener.
“It’s great to see the first of Leicester’s new living roof bus shelters appearing across the city,” said Leicester Deputy City Mayor Councillor Adam Clarke. “The new, modern shelters will be great for passengers and the mix of solar power and living roofs is another step forward for our ambition to be a carbon neutral and climate-adapted city by 2030.”
