We invite business supporters to follow the specific AIPP evidence-based ‘Businesses: actions to help pollinators’ (review the Checklist Pages 33-35) and use the companion resources to help in decision-making.

‘Businesses: actions to help pollinators’  is aligned to ISO14001:2015 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) numbers 15 and 13.

In 2025 the AIPP will publish an alignment to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) ESRS E4 Biodiversity & Ecosystems. 

   

COMPANION RESOURCES

The following will help inform decisions on Physical Actions (A-E) highlighted in Businesses: actions to help pollinators.

A – Protect what you have

Protect/enhance what is great already. Consider managing an existing native hedgerow or an existing native meadow area to support pollinators. Don’t get rid of an existing meadow to plant trees. Remember native hedgerows are also a carbon storage mechanism.

   

Run a report on which biodiversity is on or ‘adjacent’ to your site through

Identify how to manage certain invasive species on your site through 

B – Mow less in grassy areas (and lift the cuttings)

    

• Reduce mowing, AND lift the cuttings to create naturally regenerated wildflowers – a vital food source for wild bees and many other pollinators.
• Include SIGNAGE (free, downloadable, print-ready) and a mown perimeter strip to indicate change management on your site. Editable ‘Let it Bee’ or ‘Meadow in Progress’ signage also available to include your business logo, website URL, or QR code.
• N.B. Sowing wildflower seed mixes to create a (mini) meadow is NOT a biodiversity action. Non-native wildflower seed mixes may contain invasive species such as Black Grass, potentially devastating for our agricultural sector. Native mixes may have a high percentage of annuals which you will need to re-sow next year! INSTEAD reduce mowing.

C – Pollinator-friendly planting (native and ornamental)

            

‘THEMATIC’ PLACES FOR POLLINATORS

Consider thematic planting such as a Herb (culinary and/or medicinal), Sensory, or Moon Garden for nocturnal pollinators. 

      

Or a Heritage fruit tree orchard.  

  

Develop your Business park for pollinators as part of an ecological corridor.

   

Or create a Biodiversity Walking Trail (Page 32) which might include your Car Park for pollinators (Page 31). 

   

Remember to include each of the A-E actions as part of your Biodiversity Walking Trail. Connect with your Local Biodiversity Officer who will help you with iterative signage, and discover what’s happening locally through your Local Biodiversity Action Plan.

D – Provide nesting habitats

Tussocky grass at the base of a native hedgerow (bumblebees), a south facing earth bank (for solitary mining bees) and an old stone wall (cavity nesting solitary bees) are all excellent places for our pollinators to find shelter/nesting sites.

REMEMBER To have honeybee hives or an apiary is NOT a biodiversity action. The honeybee is a managed pollinator and not under threat. To increase numbers may create competition for food for our wild bees.

An apiary is absolutely fine if part of your core business, and is a wonderful hobby.

If you are considering installing honeybee hives? PLEASE SEEK EXPERT ADVICE from your local beekeeping association.

E – Reduce/eliminate use of pesticides

• Review alternatives to pesticides.
• Review Pesticide Alternatives 2024: A Summary.
• You will still need to spot-spray invasive species. Review advice at  

Communication & Governance Actions

We encourage businesses to deliver communication actions based on what is helpful for our 100+ wild bees.

• Invite Employees to ‘Pledge Your Garden’.
• Leverage Suppliers to sign up to AIPP. Ensure you ‘specify’ and buy pollinator-friendly options.
• Engage with your local Community through e.g., Tidy Towns and the GAA’s Green Club Toolkit GAA Green Club – Biodiversity
• Join affiliate conservation projects such as Ponds for Biodiversity.

Sponsorship & Procurement/tendering

• Review the Recommended sponsorship activities (Page 24) of Businesses: actions to help pollinators and review ideas on how to sponsor an evidence-based pollinator-friendly action here.
• Consider if what you are buying in terms of products and management services is pollinator-friendly with the Procurement table on Page 29 of Businesses: actions to help pollinators
• Also considering including the AIPP as part of the ‘Award Criteria’ for any tenders.

Mapping, Tracking & Measuring

• Not sure what’s on your site? Commission a baseline ecological survey (Action 4) from the Chartered Institute of Ecology & Environmental Management, include the National Pollinator Monitoring methodology available from AIPP and repeat every 5 years.
• Identify what is on and adjacent to your site and generate a ‘Report’ through Biodiversity Maps.
• Identify how pollinator friendly your car park is using the Assessment Table (Bronze/Silver/Gold) on Page 31 of ‘Businesses: actions to help pollinators’
• Score your business through the Business (self) Scoring for Pollinators Checklist on Pages 33-35 of ‘Businesses: actions to help pollinators’ guidelines.
• Map your evidence-based actions on Actions for Pollinators (GIS).
• Record and monitor what is on your business site(s) through the formal and scientifically robust weekly Flower Insect Timed (FIT) Counts (April-September) and the monthly Bumblebee Monitoring Scheme (March to October).
• Review other biodiversity monitoring schemes and conservation projects.

CONSIDER SPECIFIC POLLINATOR-FRIENDLY PLACES 

Help ‘species on the edge’ in your area

• Considering developing a meadow? Or sponsoring a meadow in the local community. Identify specific habitat development in coastal areas across the island for the Large Carder Bee.
• On the west coast (Mayo/Mullet Peninsula, north Clare, south-west Donegal and/or Connemara)? Consider habitat for the Great Yellow Bumblebee.
• Adjacent to The Burren/Galway? Consider specific habitat for the Shrill Carder Bee.
• Adjacent to coastal area/near dunes/machair (floral rich grasslands)? Consider habitat for the Northern Colletes.

                 

READ MORE on our endangered pollinators here: Great Yellow Bumblebee, Northern Colletes, Shrill Carder Bee and the Large Carder Bee. N.B. If you are allowing a meadow to develop then the Large Carder Bee resources may prove helpful.

SECTOR SPECIFIC RESOURCES – pollinator-friendly management

                          

CONSTRUCTION – Housing: New Developments

Cluid’s Landscaping and Biodiversity Guide for New Developments, with biodiversity actions endorsed by the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan includes: Preplanning checklist: Habitat survey, Invasive species, Tree and hedgerow survey, Root Protection Areas (RPA), Full level survey, Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) etc. |  Design stage  |  Boundary treatment selections and their impact on biodiversity  |  Public infrastructure to protect and encourage biodiversity  |  Groundworks, Hard landscaping & Soft landscaping/plants  |  Amenities  |  Make apartment balconies and private gardens biodiversity-friendly  |  After-care programme for landscape works.

Asset Managers (residential): provide Residents’ Associations with the guidelines Residents’ Associations – Actions for Pollinators

AGRI-BUSINESS/PROCESSORS and farm-suppliers/growers, evidence-based actions, monitoring and recording:

  

• Farmland: actions to help pollinators guidelines and Biodiversity on Your Farm recording initiative (no experience necessary).
• Processors’ supply chains (farm suppliers/growers) step-by-step to help their supply chains understand which evidence-based actions to take to support pollinators.
• Farmers’ Wildlife Calendar – help support the tracking of what is happening to biodiversity (including pollinators) in relation to climate change.
• Engage with affiliate conservation projects such as Ponds for Biodiversity.