*Raise awareness with employees

Review the outline suggestions at Action 26 on Page 26 of ‘Businesses: actions to help pollinators’ guidelines.

• • Share the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan business supporters newsletter with your employees. N.B. The newsletter is issued monthly via Mailchimp. Employees can sign up directly via this link.
  • Explain how your business is engaging with the AIPP, and encourage them to take part in helping pollinators themselves.

Other activities might include:

• • • Providing employees with an opportunity to assist with on-site pollinator actions as part of a ‘Bring Your Wellies to Work’ day e.g., ‘Native pollinator-friendly tree planting day’, ‘Bulb-planting day’.
    • Allowing employees to take part in citizen science pollinator monitoring schemes to track changes on your business site e.g., the entry-level ‘Friday FIT Counts’ (Flower-Insect Timed Counts) or the more complex but equally satisfying Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme.
    • Providing employees with information on how they can be more pollinator-friendly in their own gardens, balconies, or outdoor spaces.
    • Regularly sharing AIPP resources with your employees e.g., sports clubs, faith communities, local communities.

For employees in larger corporates you might consider engaging employees on your site with:

• • An annual competition around key pollinator-biodiversity dates (e.g. World Bee Day 20 May) for gardeners/novice gardeners and nature lovers such as: Wild Bee Garden, Perfect Pollinator Pots/Planters, Beautiful bulbs for bees (Page 11), Sunflowers for bees (Page 27).
  • An inter-sites competition such as ‘Best Planter’ assigning a planter to a department to plant and care for or ‘Best Meadow’ (through reduced-mowing).
  • A Pollinator-biodiversity photo competition.

Step-by-step for employees

Here are some ideas for encouraging employees to interact with pollinators and nature in their own gardens, balconies, or outdoor spaces:

    

1. ‘Pledge Your Garden’ (Pots/Planters).
2. Take and map evidence-based actions:
   • (A) What’s already great in your garden?
   • (B) Reduce mowing of grassy areas (& LIFT cuttings).
   • (C) Increase pollinator-friendly planting (native & ornamental).
   • (D) Designate nesting sites (tussocky grass at the base of hedgerows, south facing earth bank, old stone wall).
   • (E) Eliminate or reduce pesticides (incl. herbicides, insecticides and fungicides).
3. Create a sensory, herb, ‘moon’ garden, a sunflower circle or dandelion patch. Or focus on supporting specifically the Large Carder Bee.
4. Learn about pollinators with the free online wild bee course, download the free Bumblebee poster and check out the ‘swatch shop’.
5. Attend a pollinator-biodiversity webinar or workshop.
6. Become a *Recording Star through citizen science via ‘Friday FIT Counts’ (entry level App) OR the Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme.
7. Join your company’s Green Team and organise pollinator-related local community ‘Volunteer Days’.
8. Discover what’s happening in your local community. Pass on the specific AIPP guidelines: sports, golf courses, faith communities, junior pollinators. If joining a Tidy Towns group (incl. a Pollinator Award judged by AIPP) connect into the GAA Green Clubs Tool kit (incl. Biodiversity), Grow It Yourself, or Community Gardens.
9. ASK your local garden centre/ nursery (or supermarket/ garage forecourt retailer) for pollinator-friendly products.
10. Sign up for the AIPP newsletter and follow us on ‘socials’ X: @PollinatorPlan Instagram: @allirelandpollinatorplan