What can be more tempting than a sustainable solution that benefits your business in three ways - socially, economically and environmentally? 

You can triple win in your business by doing the following: 

1. Reducing your use of resources and CO2 footprint.
2. Reducing operating costs and empowering members of the team to take personal responsibility in the fight to reduce emissions. 
3. Use the approach ‘trust is built’, create a culture of transparency in communication, with customers and the community in which the business operates.

To triple win in your business it can be achieved through education of the team that this has the greatest impact: socially (training, upskilling, career progression, investing in your team and improved communication), economically (reductions and efficiency means cost savings) and environmentally (reduction in usage means less CO2 emissions): the triple win. 

This blog article will help your business embed a triple win strategy.

How to Triple Win Econo...

I am a Hospitality professional with an entrepreneurial mind. 

I have worked as a Hotel Manager for 20 years of my life, but I always knew I wanted to do more, I wanted to do something different, something that changed our industry for the better and had a positive impact.

That is why in 2017 I founded Fifty Shades Greener.

Fifty Shades Greener is an educational company teaching hospitality employees and managers the simple skills they need to learn to reduce their workplace carbon emissions and SAVE MONEY at the same time.

Our simple systems and processes of implementation and education are helping us green Hospitality businesses all over the world, and now, we need more people like US, to help us spread sustainability in the hospitality industry as far and wide as possible.

You can become a Fifty Shades Greener Licensed Trainer anywhere in the world, having exclusivity in your own territory which will make you the only trainer allowed to use our training programmes in your area,...

Those who work in the hospitality industry are feeling a shift in perspective post-lockdown in Ireland.  Many have remained with their previous employer and have returned for the new season, but some have moved on to a new business or even a new industry.

This lockdown (#3) has given us all time to re-evaluate our business practices, but have we taken the time to reflect on the impact our business has on our employees?

We need to acknowledge, identify and manage the impact, both positive and negative, a business has on its people.

Number eight of the UN Sustainability Goals is “Decent work and economic growth”.  We can make both a reality without one negating the other.  There are many positives to taking care of each other:  Morale increases along with productivity, new business customers and partners are attracted, retaining of talented employees and trust built in the local community.

Corporate sustainability has human rights as one of its cornerstones. The UN Global Compact has...

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 ...

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 ...

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...