Being a Citizen of Our Customers’ Industries
With 15 years of experience in higher education spanning operations, facilities, and events management, Rebecca Mohrmann’s record of excellence and her commitment to sustainability make her an ideal fit to lead the UG2 team at Cornell Tech. In 2022, Rebecca joined UG2 as the customer’s account director, managing 28 direct reports—employees in custodial, engineering, mailroom, and grounds. Recently, she became responsible for thousands of additional “workers” as she headed up the launch of a beekeeping sustainability initiative on the roof of the customer’s New York City campus.
As a hands-on manager who embraces UG2’s core values and immerses herself fully in day-to-day operations, Rebecca’s first order of business when she started in her position was to build relationships with employees, understand their roles, and help integrate them into a more collaborative team. As she sat in on a meeting of Cornell Tech’s sustainability committee, she was struck with the realization that the building offered an excellent setup for beekeeping. Formerly, Rebecca and her husband had raised bees as hobbyists at their home in Michigan, and she knew the effort was one that could build sustainability awareness and team spirit while also contributing positively to the campus.
She pitched the beekeeping idea to the sustainability committee and found they were just as excited by the project.
To help ensure the effort would be a success, Rebecca contacted an apiarist on Long Island—an expert who happens to also be an alum of Cornell. She worked with the site’s gardener to ensure the existing rooftop plants were bee friendly and scouted just the right placement for the hives, a spot beneath the roof’s solar panels that would provide some protection from the elements. Then she purchased the hive and protective equipment along with the queen and the winged wonders she refers to as “a few thousand of my closest friends.”
Her busy workers have made countless new friends themselves, as visitors to their rooftop home enjoy sharing in the bees’ care and learning about their invaluable contributions.
“Honeybees provide 80 percent of our food through their pollination,” Rebecca says. “They’re the most efficient pollinator.”
She points out several additional fun facts:
- The hierarchy of the hives include the queen, male drones, and female workers with appointed roles such as scout, gatherer, or nursery bees.
- The hives’ foragers cover a three-mile radius as they collect nectar and pollen.
- The queen lays up to two thousand eggs a day, and the bees have a 30-day lifecycle, although the late over-winter bees live longer—60 to 90 days.
The honeybees’ setup, six stories above ground, includes a hive brood box and shallower box on top of it. As the bees multiply, Rebecca and her team add more tiers. The solid-wood boxes are held secure by a cement block—in the shape of the letter C for Cornell.
Rebecca’s enthusiasm for learning about the bees mirrors the openness and curiosity she brings to her role as account director. She approaches every challenge as an opportunity to learn what the individuals around her need to become thriving members of a successful team.
Rebecca is looking forward to their first honey harvest, which will take place next spring once the bees have had ample time to build up an adequate supply for their own use. In the meantime, she invites anyone she encounters on the roof to join her when she visits the hives. Long term, her goal is to build more interest and engagement among Cornell Tech’s students. With the phenomenal response the bees have received in just a few short months, that goal is well within reach.
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