World Honey Bee Day
BERA Gravel Fix® draws inspiration from the hexagonal shape of the honeycomb. Through the honey bees incredible work ethic and years of evolution this industrial insect has perfected the honeycomb. The 18 August 2018, is World Honey Bee Day, and at BERA we decided to celebrate these insect architects. After all, bees offer mankind a host of services, from pollinating fruits and vegetables to giving us honey.
The space efficiency of honeycombs
The hexagonal shape is the most efficient structure for honeybees to store pollen, larvae and honey nectar. It takes eight ounces of honey to produce one once of wax. Wax is an expensive construction material for the bees so bees figured out how to create the most storage space using the least amount of wax. The hexagonal grid also happens to be one of the strongest structures in engineering.
The sustainable honeycomb shape of BERA Gravel Fix® Stabilisation system
Now you might be wondering what honeycombs have to do with BERA Gravel Fix. The answer: biomimicry. BERA has used the resource-efficient honeycomb design for their recyclable gravel stabilization system. BERA’s hexagonal sheets are not made of wax but high-quality recyclable Polypropylene using recision injection moulding. This efficient design allows BERA to use less Polypropylene whilst holding a variety of gravel stone sizes. The honeycomb gravel stabilisation system provides a strong and steadfast base for gravel paths, driveways and parking lots.
The BERA design is environmentally-friendly all materials are recyclable because of this the product obtained Cradle-to-Cradle certification. The gravel stabilisation sheets are porous which means the pathway won’t flood when it rains and it reduces urban water runoff allowing water to seep back into the ground and into the garden; which, inadvertently good for the flowers and the bees. It also reduces your gravel loss so clients need to replaces their gravel less frequently. Designed with the bee’s hexagon on the brain, the BERA Gravel Fix was designed to be as sustainable as possible.
Life Landscapes and Bera
Life Landscapes has been using the BERA products for gravel pavings since 2016, we have recently used the BERA product in a housing complex in Saxonworld, Johannesburg. Life & Earth also maintains beehives on our landscaping sites.