Do you own or run a Hospitality Business? And do you know how much money are you putting in the bin? 

There is a staggering statistic that 70% of the Food Waste produced by Hotels and Restaurants is actually avoidable. While we are putting food in the bin there are millions of people starving in other countries but for this piece we are going to move away from the human side of this problem, and look at it from an angle that motivates the majority of business owners: Cost Savings!

Stop throwing your money in the bin 

Putting food in the bin is quite literally the equivalent of putting your hard-earned cash in the bin. Of all waste types, this absolutely applies to food waste because of the many elements you have to factor in; 

1. You have purchased the raw produce at a cost. 
2. You have stored at your premises in fridges and freezers and therefore using energy that also costs you money.
3. You have then cooked it, using energy as well as staff wages to add to that cost. 
4. And then wh...

Odran Lucey, executive chef at the Rose Hotel in Tralee, Ireland, has become the first person in the world to successfully complete a brand-new qualification for Environmental Sustainability Management in Hospitality.

Fifty Shades Greener (FSG) and the Confederation of Tourism & Hospitality (CTH) joined forces in late 2021 to create the first Level 4 (Level 6 in Ireland) certificate in environmental sustainability management in hospitality. This is the first qualification of its kind to be regulated as an official qualification on the Ofqual framework of education.

“Reducing carbon emissions should be something that becomes paramount in our daily routines if we really want to provoke a mind-set change. Environmental education is key to driving this transformation and the general education system has a responsibility to not only prepare learners for the world of work, but provide them with the skills to influence employers, politicians and the wider society. This can be achieved throu...

Food is necessary for human survival, yet, over the last few decades, the fast-paced society and world capitalist economies have slowly but surely made us lose our connection with the food we eat.

Producing food requires a huge environmental effort: land that has been deforested, species that have been driven to extinction, indigenous populations that have been made homeless, uprooted soil that has been degraded and a huge amount of water used.

The reality of the modern global food systems is that we produce way more food than we need to, 30% of it ends up in the bin before it even reaches our supermarkets, while millions of people in the world die of starvation.

It is clear that our food systems are broken and a total re-think of those systems needs to happen on a global scale, to create a system that is sustainable at all points of our food journey. From its production, processing, transportation and even disposal at the end of its food cycle.

Environmentally, one of the most d...

I’ve often spoken about food waste and could continue to do so for the rest of my life, this is primarily down to the fact that our food supply systems are broken, and a shocking one third of all the food we produce ends up as waste before it even hits the shops.

When we talk about bridging the gap - this is clearly a social issue as well as an environmental one.

In terms of impacting the environment - when food waste ends up in landfill, which due to poor waste segregation is often the case - it produces methane, a gas that is far more damaging than carbon dioxide.

It currently accounts for between 8 - 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions however, we are forgetting the energy it takes to produce this food, the water required and the land destroyed to grow it. As I said - it is not a straightforward figure when it comes to its cycle of life and the greenhouse gases it produces along the way.

These are the global figures of food waste, but what about  for us mere mortals at home? ...

We have often heard of the spread of invasive species, plant species like Japanese knotweed in Ireland, for instance. We come up with measures to remove them, so they do not wreak havoc on the local plant species and land.  Yet we have not really considered the most destructive and invasive species of them all. 

Us Humans. 

We are exhausting our freshwater supply, filling our environment with waste, exploiting natural resources to extract oil, gas and raw materials.  

Everything we ourselves need to survive; we are destroying it.  We have shown concern as our hunting and pillaging habits have brought plant and animal species to extinction globally.  Our concern is met with very little preventative action though. As a species we are the catalysts of our own demise. 

A recent article in the Guardian said that the source of the world’s food, it’s seeds, are in the control of just four companies. It also highlighted, for instance, global banana sales are controlled by one company, the ...

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...

It is estimated that we waste about a third of all the food we produce for human consumption. A third!!! That’s a lot of food.

Producing food requires a huge environmental effort, land that has been deforested, species that have been driven to extinction, indigenous populations that have been made homeless and uprooted soil that has been degraded and a huge amount of water used – all to produce food that we then just throw away.

This is not to scare you, unfortunately this is the reality of the food waste problem we have worldwide. These are facts. It is hard for us in the western world to understand the devastating effects that food waste has on the environment, because we can’t see it with our own eyes.

Another devastating effect of food waste, is that when the majority of it ends up in our landfill bins, it decomposes without access to oxygen and creates methane, which is 23x more deadly than carbon dioxide.

Every which way you look at it food waste is a major culprit in destroy...

Do you own or run a Hospitality Business? And do you know how much money are you putting in the bin?

There is a staggering statistic that 70% of the Food Waste produced by Hotels and Restaurants is actually avoidable. While we are putting food in the bin there are millions of people starving in other countries but for this blog I am going to move away from the human side of this problem, and talk about what most motivates business owners: COST SAVINGS.

Stop putting your money in the bin

Putting food in the bin is literally the equivalent of putting your hard earned cash in the bin. More so even, than any other waste type. You have to factor in the following elements:

1. You bought the raw produce at a cost
2. You stored it in your fridges and freezers using energy that also cost you money
3. Then you cooked it, using energy and staff wages to add to that cost.
4. And then when the food comes back from your food service areas, or when it is spoiled in your fridges, you pay money for your w
...

After last week’s Thought of the week and after discovering that Tourism could possibly be the most polluting Industry in the world in the future I have decided to take action, but I need your help!

My mission, is to Green the Hospitality Industry one step at the time. The big dream is to run an international campaign that will reach businesses all over the globe, but I want to start at home, in Ireland, after all, are we not known to be the Green Island or Emerald Island? It is time to live up to our name!

What is the Saucy Challenge?

So here is the challenge, and how you can get behind it, weather you are in the industry or not.

One of the big pain points of my life are Individually wrapped condiments, the Mayonnaise, ketchup, sugar, salt, butter, etc. You see them all over food service businesses, bars, restaurants, cafes, hotels… Every time a packet is opened, the wrapping ends up in Landfill. Now this might seem like a small thing to you, but consider this, imagine a food busi...