Last week I saw the amazing Clover Hogan, a young climate activist from Australia give a TEDTalk 

The link to her talk is on this week's written blog on our website, I encourage you to watch it - it's fantastic!

 “Climate change is not your responsibility, because it is outside your control, but what is your responsibility, is the things inside your control.”

So what does Personal Responsibility for Climate means?

For me, it all comes down to the things I have been speaking about on my weekly blogs for the past 2 years.

You can choose to;

1. Continue to live your life as you are..

OR

2. Continue to live your life with an added commitment to reducing your impact on the planet.

Two clear choices and no wrong answer.

YOU are in charge of your life and what do you with it is completely up to you.

I would not chastise anyone for choosing Option 1, however know that I am choosing Option 2 because I want to look back on my life in 10 years time and know that I did everything I poss...

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...

We are beyond thrilled to spring into February on a very positive note! 

In collaboration with KWETB Training Services (Kildare/Wicklow Education & Training Board of Ireland) we are presenting an online Environmental Education programme to secondary schools.

This pilot project allows us to bring the “Build your future Fifty Shades Greener” programme to secondary schools from Kildare and Wicklow counties of Ireland and  is completely funded by KWETB, so at absolutely no cost to the school.

We are seeking teachers that want to involve their class on this 'first of its kind' project.

This programme is taught through video based tutorials, practical lessons and action based learning in a fun and interactive way. It teaches the student how they can achieve a lower carbon footprint lifestyle, as well as reducing their household’s energy, waste & water costs. This vital knowledge can then be applied to their schools and even at their future workplaces.

The Fifty Shades Greener team will ...

Reducing carbon emissions should not be left to the large corporations alone. There are small changes and steps we can ALL learn to reduce our own carbon footprint.

Yes, I agree that for real impact it is vital that large corporations and governments adopt different policies when it comes to protecting our environment. But it does not take away from the fact that there many ways in which WE can assist in promoting a more circular economy and a culture of sustainability.

If you are at that point where you want to make changes but you do not know how or where to start, we are here to help.

Let’s start with those simple daily, weekly or monthly activities that impact the environment.

I can come up with one easy list of things, amongst many others:

• The energy we use
• The water we use
• The waste we produce
• The way we travel to and from places
• The purchases we make 

If you have been following us for a while, you will know by now that we concentrate on the first 3; the reduction ...

“Fly if you like, I won't judge you” was a statement that Greta Thunberg gave to The Sunday Times Magazine as she turned 18.

This sentence really got me thinking about influence and divisive ideals and opinions. Something we are seeing more and more in modern society in the midst of this Trump era, is the rise of the far right all over the world and more worryingly - extremism. 

The definition of polarising is ‘to cause something, especially something that contains different people or opinions, to divide into two completely opposing groups: “The debate is becoming polarised and there seems to be no middle ground.”’

We have all seen first hand the damage that a destructive leader can do during Trump’s presidency, culminating in the assault on the Capitol Building on January 6th. 

Radicalism or fundamentalism of any “idea” is never a good path to follow. We need to allow that as humans, as a society, people are going to have different points of view and opinions. Opinions that are re...

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...