National Grid Launches Pollination, Biodiversity Programs

WALTHAM, MA — National Grid announced Wednesday that it is working with environmental scientists to pilot two new projects that help promote pollination and biodiversity.

The pilots are part of the company's Responsible Business Charter, which commits to improving the environmental value of 10% of the land owned by National Grid by 2030.

The first pilot involves the company welcoming nearly 20,000 honeybees to its Northboro facility as part of a partnership with the The Best Bees Company. Local beekeepers will maintain two honeybee hives in the grassy area behind the building and collect data on their health for pollinator research.

“Over the past few years, bee colonies have been under severe stress, and without the bees our lifestyles would be very different," said National Grid Sustainability Specialist Eugene Brown in a statement. "The project in Northboro is just the beginning, and National Grid has plans for other office locations where we hope to continue expanding this initiative."

The second pilot will take place on 1.6 acres of land in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where National Grid will let native pollinators thrive on off-road, green sections under power lines, known as rights-of-way (ROW), that would normally need to be maintained. Through this study, the company will measure the benefits of letting ROW land turn back into a meadow.

“With this pollinator project, National Grid is helping to advance the science ofbiodiversity and organisms that live in the ROW,” said Dr. Anand Persad, the Director o fResearch, Science, and Innovation with ACRT Services, in a statement.

"This is a very unique habitat that exists under power lines and is uncommon in the New England area," said Jon Duval, a Senior Supervisor of Transmission Forestry with National Grid, in a statement. "These meadows are few and far between. The more we help to preserve these pollinator areas, the more we help to improve our environment and communities at large.”

National Grid is currently conducting several pollinator projects on multiple ROW areas in New England and is presently sampling 222 belt transects in about 15 different areas across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.