We have, what we might describe as, a pandemic of climate anxiety crossing the globe. One which, like the covid-19 pandemic, seems unlikely to inspire the same level of concern to those in power to take action.

And so we find ourselves in the position of having to take action ourselves. Be that gluing yourself to the motorway which, admittedly the British gentleman did admit he regretted, or a company taking the initiative to make real change.

In this week's podcast episode, we talk with Michelle Wallace from Host in Ireland about their DCs for Bees initiative.

Data centers and bees may seem something like chalk and cheese, but as an industry, Host in Ireland is showing us that there are moves that can be made to contribute to rewilding and biodiversity, instead of taking away from it.

“Bees are just an indicator of overall biodiversity,” said Wallace. “They're the nice little fluffy guys who are flying around and we're all very familiar with them. They are one of the two big indicators of the health of biodiversity in general.

“But bees are seriously in decline. Biodiversity, in general, is in decline. So when we can focus on creating the right environment for bees, there's a knock-on effect for general biodiversity. And that, in itself will have a knock-on effect on how our food is created and sourced.

“70% of the crops that are grown are dependent on pollinators. And so if we don't have them, we're in trouble as a species.”

In order to combat this, the DCs for Bees initiative is taking a four-pronged approach. Ambassadors to create awareness, a pollinator plan to take long-term action, difference days to work with the Native Woodland Trust, and the planting of over 1,250 orchards throughout Ireland.

“We're going to the experts, we're going to the scientists, and we're saying what is the very best thing that we can do with this amount of people, with this amount of money.? What's the very best thing we can do to create the best impact right now? And that is orchards.

“Right now, in 32 counties of Ireland, we’ve planted 1200 mini fruit and mixed fruit tree orchards.”

Of course, the process of improving biodiversity and rewilding areas is never simple. Every small move has a knock-on impact - a butterfly effect. For example, attempting to plant new wildflowers.

“Depending on where the Wildflower comes from, it can come with diseases that aren't in Ireland already. The second thing would be that even if you go for native wildflower seed, it can be planted in the wrong place.”

These simple issues have dramatic impacts on the surrounding environment, and can permanently alter the careful balance.

This week's podcast really gets into the nitty-gritty of this issue, and how Host in Ireland has worked around it. Want to find out how your data center could get involved? Tune in now.