Back in 2012, while working as the Sales & Marketing Manager of Hotel Doolin in West Clare, my General Manager told me to form a "green team" and apply for Green Hospitality Ireland certification. 

Excuse me but...what?!

To say I was apprehensive at the start would be an absolute understatement! 

I had no idea where to even begin.

I attended workshops, seminars, and completed an endless number of courses as well as reading blogs about Green businesses. 

Within 2 years and with little to no investment, we managed to reduce our Energy by 30%, our Waste by 40% and our Water by 25%. 

My first thought was “WHY ISN’T EVERYONE DOING THIS?"

To me, greening your hotel or restaurant became not just “the nice thing” to do, it is instead “the smart” thing to do from a business perspective. 

My Light-bulb moment 

At this point of my career, everything shifted and changed for me forever.

The "Why isn’t everyone doing this?" began forming an idea in my head. 

What if I could teach other...

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...

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...

This week, I thought Id give you a break from telling you my opinion on something or other and instead, I wanted to highlight a business that is walking the walk and talking the talk when it comes to their Green Programme.

Dating back to the 18^th century, Whatley Manor is a beautifully restored manor house and spa nestles in 12 acres of gardens. Apart from their impressive award winning restaurant, what most attracts me to this property is their sustainability programme, which kick started in 2019.

Last week I had the pleasure to find out more about how they began their journey from Sue Williams, General Manager.

“The owners of Whatley Manor and I were discussing the subject of our operations impact on the environment and it was evident that we all had strongly held views that we wanted to focus hard on becoming more ethical operators both on property and in the community. We very quickly got underway as all parties were aligned.”

Having the owners and top management invested on a ...

Hotels and Restaurants spend a good portion of their sales paying for utilities, the energy, water and waste that takes to run your business, can be the second largest cost you will incur over the year.

So when was the last time you trained your team to SAVE YOU MONEY??? Or have you ever?

Teaching your employees the right behaviour around the use of energy and water and production of waste is the KEY element to not only reduce your running costs, but also to run a greener, more efficient business, and to reduce your Carbon emissions. It is that simple!

I worked in the Hospitality industry all my life, since I was 17, I went through a Hotel Management Diploma for 4 years, NOBODY, in my 20 year career, told me I was behaving the wrong way around utilities, and I was spending more money than I should.

Nobody told me that switching off the over for an extra hour a day could save my workplace €2,000

Nobody told me knowing the water flow rate of our taps would help me make smarter decis...

If your business is running a Green programme to reduce it’s carbon footprint it seems logical to use your green journey as a marketing tool.

The travel agent central statistics released a report in 2019 were it stated that:

87% of global travellers want to travel more sustainably

78% of traveller would pay more to stay in Green certified accommodation

So a green programme is not only good for the planet, it is also what society and your customers are seeking more and more in recent years.

Running a Green Hotel can increase your customer footfall and rates, but there are a few top tips to follow, in order to market your green journey in the right way.

1. NEVER EVER say you do more than what you do. This is my number one rule, always be honest and never over exaggerate your achievement, there is nothing worse than green washing.
2. Document your team’s journey through videos, photos and social media posts. Are you having a Green Team meeting? Take a photo, disclose what you discuss a
...

Allow me to steal 3 minutes of your time today to show you how simple it is to reduce your Hotel’s carbon footprint and even achieve carbon neutrality.

Sustainability is this big word that is thrown around so often and in so many scenarios that it becomes an unachievable task in our minds. So I want to demystify it and break it into actionable steps:

1. Calculate your current Carbon Footprint

This is again easier than you might think, all you need to do is learn to understand your utility bills, waste, water and energy.

2. Set up a system and assign a person in your team to monitor your carbon footprint every month – this person is going to be your Green Manager who should report to you and the rest of the time periodically.

3. Observe your building, where and when is energy used, where and when is water used and where and what waste is produced.

4. Provide staff training for waste, water and energy reductions

5. Generate savings in year 1 and 2 from your utility
...

Choosing your courier is not an easy task. Some people know from an early age what they want to be when they are adults, that was not the case for me. I remember when I was 17 and my parents pushed me to chose a college and a path.

I had no idea what I wanted, all I knew is that I wanted to do something fun that would inspired me everyday.

I have found inner peace in a lot of jobs that have come my way over the years, but after a while, something always made me change paths, like if what I was doing was not really my calling.

I have felt for years that I had not found my place in the world yet. But every job, every courier change, taught me something new, a new skill, a new outlook, how to pick myself back up and how to enjoy the little wins.

8 years ago, after a long courier as a Hotel Manager, I was challenged with the concept of Green Hospitality, resource efficiency and reduction of carbon footprint.

It took me a long time to really engage with this concept. Work was busy, I n...

Never in our minds we would have thought our beloved Hospitality industry would lie dormant for 3 months. But that is the reality of 2020, as the world re-opens slowly, and people start to travel, it is time to take a good luck at our current standards of procedure, and ensure we are running efficient businesses.

It has never been more important than now to ensure we reduce our business running costs, by having efficient systems in place. If you have never implemented an Environmental Management System at your business, chances are you are paying for more Energy, Waste and Water than you really need to.

• Who turns on your kitchen main over every day and at what time?
• What is your most disposed of item of landfill waste?
• What is the water flow rate of you bathroom taps?

If you know the answers to those 3 questions, you are already on a winning path! But if you are not sure on the answers, or need to “check” with someone else, this means you are not in control of your business ut...