Veris Residential cultivates more sustainable and connected communities
Veris Residential develops, owns, and manages premium multifamily properties throughout New Jersey and New England. With 69% of their properties green-certified and 100% WELL Equity and Health-Safety Rated, they are the premier choice for sustainability-conscious residents looking for a property that shares their values.
To showcase their dedication to the environment and offer residents a unique chance to connect with nature, 15 of these locations have adopted nature-based urban beekeeping programs.
The mission
Environmental sustainability is a key element of Veris Residential’s brand and mission. It’s what attracts their residents and plays a role in every initiative and amenity the properties implement.
The Veris Residential team wanted a way to bring these important initiatives to life for their residents. They wanted to spark more conversations and foster more interest and engagement through storytelling.
“We have all of these great initiatives. But with things like energy consumption reduction, there isn’t a tangible aspect for residents to engage with.”
– Abbey Renaud, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications
The solution
Veris Residential now has nature-based urban beekeeping programs at 15 of their properties.
Along with visits from their beekeeper every three weeks, each building receives two annual events, focusing on environmental education. These events give residents a chance to meet their beekeeper, learn about bees and biodiversity, and even bottle their own jars of honey.
Even when the beekeeper isn’t there, the bees remain top of mind for residents. Educational signage is placed in high traffic areas. The communities even installed symbolic hives (with no bees living inside) near the concierge desk or in common areas to let residents know about the real hives on the roof.
These storytelling opportunities helped the Veris Residential team spark more meaningful conversations around their existing sustainability programs and related issues surrounding nature and biodiversity.
“The bee program allows our residents to interact with our sustainability programs. It’s all about educating the residents and connecting them to our initiatives in the best way we can.”
– Abbey Renaud, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications
Alvéole's expertise
The results
The partnership between Veris Residential and Alvéole has led to a greater awareness and appreciation for the properties’ existing sustainability initiatives, as well as for the importance of supporting biodiversity.
The bees have successfully opened the doors to important conversations and strengthened the sense of community in the residences.
“Resident feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”
– Ann Wood, Marketing and Events Manager
Increased awareness of sustainability initiatives
Through resident events, educational signage, the interactive MyHive app, and bee-themed activity books for kids, Veris has sparked more conversations around environmental sustainability.
“Everything that we’re doing has ignited a curiosity which leads to education and understanding. We use the bees to start those conversations.”
– Ann Wood, Marketing and Events Manager
Resident engagement and appreciation
The educational events are well-attended across all Veris properties.
For daily connection to the bees, Veris installed live “bee cams” and integrated hive updates into their resident app.
To show their appreciation, Veris also gifts honey and other customized beeswax products like lip balm to their residents.
Resident attraction and marketing opportunities
The program provides thumb-stopping social media content for Veris’ marketing team.
The hives have also garnered press coverage from news outlets, local radio, and influencers.
This helps Veris demonstrate their commitment to providing sustainable communities for potential residents.
It's nice to be able to talk about our ESG initiatives through the very charismatic honey bee. It gives us the chance to talk about the bigger issues. Things that we can work towards as a community.
– Ann Wood, Marketing and Events Manager
