06:30, 20 May 2025
Words by Abi Scaife, Staff Writer, London
Imagine you are a bee, gently buzzing from flower to flower, bathing in pollen as you drink sweet nectar. You and your bee buddies exhaust the supply of flowers around you and make to ‘buzz off’, but a concrete jungle stands behind you, devoid of plant life.
If you’re a regular train user, you’ve probably noticed the influx of planters, filled with pollinator-friendly plants and flowers, placed on train platforms. These are the product of the Bee Friendly Trust, a brilliant organisation dedicated to promoting the survival of bees and other pollinators.
“We use the stations as hubs for growing plants, for bees to feed on,” says Dr Luke Dixon, co-founder of the Bee Friendly Trust. “To create safe pathways for bees to fly through the urban environment with something to feed on everywhere they go.”
The plant life at each station, and along the train tracks allows bees and other pollinators to travel through urban environments using the train routes like a map.
“It's easy for bees and birds and small creatures to navigate themselves down the railway track, because it's all green,” adds Dr Dixon. “That’s a great way for wildlife to live and work and navigate around an urban environment rather than crossing the road or flying through concrete buildings.”
Dr Dixon set up the Bee Friendly Trust after hobby beekeeping turned into a business, and he realised just how much bees needed help - and how much their human counterparts wanted to provide it.
“People have... become much more aware of helping bees — t that they are responsible for at least a third of everything we eat and drink,” adds Dr Dixon. “We’d be so much poorer in terms of what we had available to eat and drink. So we're really dependent on them.”
This year, 2025, is the Bee Friendly Trust’s 10th anniversary - that’s 10 years of educating people about the importance of bees and other pollinators, and adapting our urban environments to be more pollinator-friendly.
Alongside their railway station projects, the Bee Friendly Trust also gets involved with a great deal of corporations that want to be more environmentally conscious and make a tangible impact on our world.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Dr Dixon was helping at 27 different sites across London, helping corporations to create apiaries, or just make their physical locations more accessible for bees and other wildlife. In fact, on the day of Smiley News’ interview with Dr Dixon, he is calling from Nando’s headquarters.
“A lot of corporations are planting green roofs… here at Nando’s, we’re planting up the roof. That’s quite a common thing now,” explains Dr Dixon, of his current whereabouts. “My colleague was at the Royal Academy of Music yesterday dealing with a swarm of bees that had come into the roof of the college.”
The Trust provides green guidance on a consulting basis, often working with corporations that have land they want to make more wildlife-friendly. Whether that is through breathing new life into a nature area that has fallen into disrepair, designing bespoke wildlife gardens, or creating habitats, the Bee Friendly Trust is there to help.
Now, if you’re a Smiley Charity Film award-winner and fancy adding some new hardware to your shelves - or even if you’re not! - The Bee Friendly Trust also run the Bee Friendly Awards. Yes, this adorable award is given out based on how pollinator-friendly you have worked to be.
“[In 2021] we started them as Bee Friendly Towns,” says Dr Dixon. “You had to demonstrate things the town had done — planting, school workshops, education, awareness, even artworks.”
“Last year we made them wider… it can be a town, a business, or a school.”
These awards aren’t just given to any old town or business with a bug hotel and a lavender garden. Those who win a Bee Friendly Award have gone out of their way not only to make life better for bees and other pollinators but also to educate others about why they are so important to our ecosystem.
The Bee Friendly Trust isn’t just dedicated to helping bees, but humans, too. They regularly commission local artists to create bee and pollinator-centred murals, to educate passersby and remind them of how crucial their involvement is for the continued existence of bees.
“We just finished a project... we commissioned ceramicists to make terracotta skeps, which we then asked six young [female] artists to decorate,” says Dr Dixon. “It’s about finding interesting ways to raise people’s awareness of bees... and brighten the environment.”
But what can I do? You might ask. After all, you’re just one person. How can you make a difference?
Quite easily, it turns out.
“Just plant something,” urges Dr Dixon. “It doesn’t have to be huge. It can be just a pot of lavender on your windowsill or by your front door.”
“Something purple. Lavender and rosemary — you cannot go wrong. They're almost indestructible and require very little looking after.”
Just like how bees are so very little, but do so much, small acts by you can have a massive impact. Plant lavender, carry sugar water, throw wildflower seed bombs - all these things can only create ripples of goodness. Like the Bee Friendly Trust, which began through love and flourished into something impactful, don’t underestimate the small actions you can take every day.
World Bee Day is today - making it a great day to start your mission of helping the bees and other pollinators.
The Bee Friendly Trust is a charity dedicated to creating habitats where honey bees and all pollinators can thrive.
At Smiley Movement, we like to elevate the work of charities across the world. Here are three charities whose causes align with the themes in this article.
Trees For Cities. They are working to plant more trees within large metropolitan areas, for the betterment of people and planet. Support them here.
The Canal & Rivers Trust. The Rivers Trust are conservation experts who work to create wild, healthy, natural rivers. Support them here.
The Woodland Trust. This is the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity, concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of native woodland heritage. Support them here.
