Sustainability has so many definitions that it can often drive people to distraction…

What does it actually mean? How do I make my own business more sustainable? How do I know if I am successful at greening my business?

The answers are much simpler than people may think and I'll tell you why.

Here at the Fifty Shades Greener office, a ‘green’ or sustainable business is simply one that reduces its impact to the environment. Businesses affect the environment in 3 ways; through their use of energy, production of waste and consumption of water.

In order to run an environmentally friendly business, you first need to reduce your business’s utilities, and the best part of this journey is that not only will you reduce your business’s Carbon Footprint and impact to the environment - you will also SAVE MONEY off your utility bills.

It is a win/win situation for any business owner.

Yet 99% of the Hotel owners I meet on a weekly basis, do not have a handle on these 3 pillars of sustainabilit...

First of all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

I hope 2021 is kinder to all of us than 2020 has been...

As we all delve into New Year’s resolutions, I wanted to start my year talking about a country I admire and have followed the progress of for a few years now - Costa Rica.

This blog, is a little longer than my regular blogs because I found the story of the development of Costa Rica so interesting and inspiring that I couldn't make it any shorter!

The moral of the story for me, is that a government that invests in protecting its natural resources and educating its people on the importance of the same, is on a winning trajectory.

In the era of the world wide web and fake news, it is difficult to determine which “facts” are real or not so to write this blog I partnered with Luis Murillo from Costa Rica and I found the story of their sustainable developments fascinating. 

Here is what Luis told me:

According to Luis, there were 4 elements of the history of Costa Rica that allowed ...

It does not feel like award season this year, does it?

The fancy dinners in black ties are long gone from our diary’s as we try to stay away from social contact and everything we now as “normal”.

But it stills remains, more important than ever, to recognize those businesses that achieve a level of excellence. Those businesses that despite the current pandemic, are putting the environment at the forefront of their operations.

I know a few of them….Do you know any?

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

We want to hear what you have done on your sustainability journey, and we want to recognize your efforts.

Fifty Shades Greener has launched the International Green Business award recognition. This is NOT A COMPETITION against your peers, but it recognizes and achieved standard, for any business in any industry.

In order to apply you will need to:

• Summarise the last 12 months of your green programme
• Provide environmental training to your employees
• Demonstrate you have established your busine
...

When was the last time you took time out of your day to review the energy your hotel or restaurant uses?

Following staff wages, your energy consumption could possibly be one of the largest costs to your business. Yet every week I meet hospitality managers that don’t have control over their energy consumption.

I always found it funny, I spent 4 and a half years in hotel management training. They told me how to budget, how to forecast, how to control staff wages…. However, nobody ever told me that when I finally became a hotel manager, I would also be in charge of a building. 

A building that inevitably comes with high costs due to running energy, water and waste.

In my early hotel management years I was often assigned the early duty manager shift, where I would walk into work at 6.30am and meet the only person up earlier than me! My best buddy -  the breakfast chef!

For years I witnessed breakfast chefs arrive on duty and turn all the lights on, all the ovens on, extractor fans, gr...

Waste is one of the most colossal challenges of our times. Waste production continues to increase and Ireland is now facing a potential waste mountain with no place to go. For some facts and stats continue reading to the end of this blog.

The first step to reducing waste at your hospitality business – CHECK YOUR BINS!

I am aware this is less than glamorous but unfortunately it is the only way you can learn what waste you are producing. I myself had to carry this out over a period of months when I was green manager at Hotel Doolin. It is a less than savoury task BUT one thing is for sure, I learned A LOT from it and I reduced our waste by 30% in one year by applying very simple actions - the  first one being WATCHING YOUR BINS!

Checking your bins allows you to understand what waste is being produced at your business, enabling you to take the necessary steps to either reduce or abolish certain waste completely.

Check your bins at different times of the day and different days of the w...

As adults, and in particular as professionals in our industry, it is hard to admit that there might be a better way to do things.

We have to be open to change.

We have to be whiling to admit the errors of our ways, and learn a new skill that will allow us to run more efficient businesses.

We have to be whiling to change the way we have always done things.

What if I was to tell you there are things you can do right now, today, without the need of capital investment to reduce your Hotel’s carbon footprint and SAVE YOU MONEY every day?

Would it be worth to dedicate some time this week to learn how?

The secret is that it all starts with behavioural change, with a willingness to learn something knew and apply it to your daily routine.

Changing yours and your team’s behaviour might seem an impossible task, but it is no different than training a brand new employee. If someone joins your team, you will be telling them about your company’s mission, your customer service promise, how you ...

If you have not implemented an Environmental Management system at your hospitality business you are spending a lot more than you should in your utilities.

Who is the person responsible right now to decide when your equipment should be turned on or off?

Who is responsible to measure your food waste production?

Who decides when taps should be left running?

If you can not answer those 3 questions then you really need to invest some time on a green programme.

Environmental sustainability to us, at the Fifty Shades Greener office, is all about been efficient with your resources, the energy & water your business uses and the waste it produces. The key here is that reducing those resources, will not only make you a Greener business with less impact on the environment, but it is also going to SAVE YOU MONEY.

I have worked with properties were we have reduced energy use by 30% in the first 4 months, do you know how much savings that would mean to your business? If you want to find out, ge...

Last week during a Radio interview the presenter said: I love your company name, why did you chose Fifty Shades Greener?

The question brought me back to 2017, when I was an enthusiastic entrepreneur at the very start of my journey. The film Fifty Shades Darker had just been released and while it receive criticism it was a big hit in the box office.

I am not a fun of the movie and I have not read the book, but there was something about the name Fifty Shades Darker that stock with me.

The connotation that dark or green or any colour can have many different shades, resonated with the training programme I had already started drawing on my mind, one that would bring a business through different shades of Green.

I checked in with my husband as I normally do with important decisions and his reaction was: “Ugh. No, you are going to be dealing with businesses and business people, they will not like that name”

I normally listen to his advice, otherwise I would not ask, so I thought about it...

With the reality of Brexit looming upon us, it is not surprise that all industries are worried about what it means for them.

In Tourism, the figures are quite alarming, it is estimated 10,000 job losses and a drop on National Tourism revenue of €390 million.

Nobody really knows for sure what is going to happen exactly, will it be as bad as they expect? will it be worse? Or will it actually be better? Who knows! Not even those in charge are too sure about any of it, so instead of panicking striking, let’s start looking at other things you, in your business, can do, to contra-rest the expected loss of revenue should the worst case scenario happens.

Green Tourism, a growing market

The answer is quite simple, if we are going to lose a large amount of tourist coming into Ireland from the UK, we simply need to look at other emerging markets. And, conveniently for me you might think, Green Tourism, is one of the fastest growing markets.

According to Travel Agent Central Statistics, 87% o...