Many employees are passionate about making the world — and their workplace — a more eco-friendly place, from instating recycling programs to advocating for renewable energy sources. In fact, 69% of adults said they want their companies to invest in sustainability efforts, according to a 2023 Deloitte survey. Sustainability is not just a buzzword — it’s a smart business decision to foster employee wellbeing and maintain longevity for the future.
If you’re not sure how to engage your workforce in your sustainability efforts, partnering with leading nonprofits is a great place to start. Heifer International works globally, alongside the communities they serve, to provide livestock and training in sustainable agricultural practices to create the most favorable opportunity for families. They offer a buzz-worthy opportunity to engage your workforce while promoting local biodiversity.
By participating, your company can contribute to sustainable agricultural practices, support communities in need, and empower employees to be active participants in the fight for a healthier planet.
Employee engagement offering: Honey Harvest
Discover the transformative power of sustainable beekeeping with Heifer International’s Honey Harvest employee engagement activity. This hands-on, team-building initiative invites employees to create bee habitats while learning about the critical role pollinators play in regenerative agriculture and sustainable food systems.
Through Honey Harvest, participants directly support smallholder farmers who keep bees, empowering them to earn additional income through honey production, often yielding more than 60 pounds annually. It’s a powerful way to connect your workforce with Heifer International’s mission to end poverty and hunger through sustainable practices.
The Honey Harvest kit provides everything your company needs to cultivate pollinator-friendly plants and build bee habitats. This flexible activity can be delivered to employee homes, offices, or community venues, making it easy to provide a meaningful, eco-friendly engagement experience!
Learn more about this activity:
For every 10 participants, approximately 30,000 bees are supported and donated through this habitat-building project. Invite your employees to take part in sustainability-focused employee engagement that empowers communities, nurtures biodiversity, and promotes a greener future for all.
See the impact
Nestled in the lush mountains of eastern Honduras, the community of Las Selvas, El Paraíso, is dotted with small patches of land where farmers cultivate coffee, citrus, grains and honey.
Despite the fact that the town lies dozens of kilometers from the nearest urban center, a group of intrepid local beekeepers supported by Heifer Honduras’ Leveraging Success project has created new opportunities by making Las Selvas into an apiculture hub — by constructing a honey processing plant.
The processing plant allows farmers to scale their honey enterprises and streamline production. For the members of the Las Selvas Beekeeping Association, the processing plant represents a future of advanced production, local jobs and larger incomes.
“This group of young people is enthusiastic, and the zone has excellent potential for honey,” said Marco Machado, country director of Heifer Honduras. “Beekeeping is a great bet, not only because of the importance of bees in nature, but because it is a way to diversify in an innovative, productive and resilient way.”
“I was a housewife with five children, and I only went out to work during coffee harvest time,” said Diana Moncada, the Las Selvas Beekeeping Association’s marketing coordinator. “My husband had a small apiary, but I wasn’t interested in bees. I didn’t know how to work with them.”
However, after learning about beekeeping and its benefits from a Heifer Honduras training, Moncada changed her mind. “I was excited to get organized and get started,” she said. “Besides, other women friends and neighbors in the community were also there.”
With ongoing support from Heifer Honduras, the Las Selvas Beekeeping Association helps members strengthen technical and administrative capacities for honey production and marketing, and its members have seen extraordinary success.
The honey processing plant represents the next chapter in their growth.
Need help?
Want to host this engagement activity or partner with Heifer International on a larger project? We’re here to help. From free resources to event planning support, Global Impact is the expert in workplace giving.
Let us help you inspire greater giving and foster a culture of social responsibility within your organization. Reach out today to get started!
Thank you for Heifer International for providing content for this blog.