John Flewelling, at the age of 57, could justifiably point to the stunning monuments to human ingenuity he’s already helped animate for posterity. As the president and CEO of CBCL—one of Atlantic Canada’s most established engineering and environmental consulting firms, now 70 years old—he could mention the Saint John Harbour cleanup, which paved the way for the city’s uptown reinvention. There’s also the Clyde River Harbour rebuild, which gave Nunavut its marine port. But the project he’s talking about today involves bees. Fifty thousand of them, buzzing away just above his corporate headquarters in downtown Halifax.

“We have two hives on the roof here at the Maritime Centre,” he said about his urban apiary. “The bees come from all over the peninsula to make their home.” he enthuses. “Most people don’t expect an engineering firm to have beehives.”

Since 2022, the little side project—launched through a partnership with urban beekeeping company Alvéole—has produced litres of honey and pounds of beeswax. CBCL staff use the stuff to make lip balm, soap and candles for clients and internal events. Guests can tour the rooftop hives, learn about pollination and even bottle the honey themselves. “It’s become part of who we are,” he said. “We bring people up, they learn how to scrape the honey, spin the centrifuge, bottle it—every part of the process.”

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