Welcome to the garden
The Hive, MIT's new sustainability garden, is a collaborative project between the Office of Sustainability, Undergraduate Association Committee on Sustainability (UA Sustain), and MIT Grounds Services within the Department of Facilities. The Hive aims to bring the community together for sustainability education, collaborative thinking, and relaxation. Construction of the garden was completed in the summer of 2019.
You can find The Hive on the Saxon Lawn, which is at the corner of Ames Street and Memorial Drive. See it on a map.
In 2017, UA Sustain surveyed MIT undergraduates and discovered great enthusiasm to pursue the design of a garden for the campus community. They teamed up with the Office of Sustainability, MIT Grounds Services, and many other partners to turn their idea into action.
In the summer of 2019, the collaborative design was approved, and the garden was built. Students constructed the chairs from scratch in the Architecture Shop, assembled the table, helped install the cedar planters as well as the comprehensive irrigation system, and plant all of the beautiful plants.
With a theme of pollinator-attracting plants, The Hive brings awareness to the crucial role that bees, butterflies, birds, beetles, moths, and others play in sustaining our economies, food security, and environmental health.
At the garden, you can learn about how our plants help support the pollinator population, sit at our community table to cross-pollinate ideas with each other, or just relax and enjoy the green space. We hope you have a great visit and look forward to updating you as we further activate the garden this year!
Read a book or enjoy a picnic in the garden, but no alcohol and smoking, please.
Always carry out what you carry in. Let's keep the garden beautiful!
If you move the chairs into the shade, please move them back onto the stone dust (within the garden perimeter) when you're done.
Only members of the organizing Garden Committee may plant or remove plants.
A special thanks to the Associative Provost’s Office, the Office of the EVPT, and the Environmental Solutions Initiative for helping make this project happen.
Our mission is to transform MIT into a powerful model that generates new and proven ways of responding to the unprecedented challenges of a changing planet via operational excellence, education, research and innovation on our campus.
UA Sustainability is a student group that strives to generate interest, awareness and action in sustainability on campus by raising awareness, fostering good habits, providing resources, and driving policy changes. We dream of making MIT the most sustainable campus in the world!
The MIT Department of Facilities creates, cares for, and powers MIT’s physical environment. As stewards of the campus, we build and maintain its structures and grounds, manage its security, and provide the utilities and services necessary to advance the educational and research activities of the Institute.
Founded in 2014, the Environmental Solutions Initiative is MIT’s institute-wide effort to mobilize the substantial scientific, engineering, policy, and design capacity of our community to contribute to addressing climate change and other environmental challenges of global import. We pursue multidisciplinary research, education, events, and partnerships to help move society toward an environmentally and socially sustainable future.
The mission of Institute Events is to meet the information needs of the MIT community, campus visitors, and the public; to orchestrate and advise on issues of protocol; to distribute knowledge and best practices in event planning and coordination; to promote community within MIT and hospitality to campus guests; and to support conferences and direct events that sustain MIT’s global leadership in education, research, and innovation.
