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...

This is difficult to determine, because there is more than one issue at stake.

In terms of Co2 emission at the production stage, Tetra Pak cartons are the winner, followed by plastic, then aluminium, and surprisingly then glass is the worst.

Glass is the highest producer of carbon emissions because of what energy is required to produce it BUT if you are reusing the glass bottles, their shelf life is much greater than the other materials, and so it could be considered a more sustainable product.

In terms of plastic pollution and the ability to do closed loop recycling, glass and aluminium are the winners. And as you recycle them more times, their carbon emissions start to fall back down towards cartons and plastic.

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/guide-environmentally-friendly-drinks-packaging 

As per the above, it depends on how the item is going to be used and then disposed of.

Some are better in terms of their carbon emissions and others tie into the closed loop of...

Over the past number of weeks, as the hospitality has prepared for reopening in both Ireland and the UK, we are constantly hearing from business owners and managers and the difficult they are having in rebuilding their teams.

There are many factors affecting staff retention within hospitality and sometimes it is our own fault - the managers of the industry. Working in such a volatile and time-pressure environment, we often forget that our team are also under pressure and over worked. There are also factors totally outside of our control at play, such as the current pandemic, causing many hospitality people to move on to other industries during restrictions and closures of hotels & restaurants.

Whatever the reason, the fact is that the Hospitality industry is going to find it increasingly harder to bounce back due to shortages in the workforce. The danger now is that the people that are still waiting for the industry to re-open, will once again become over-worked due to said...

I am blessed that because of my job, I get to work alongside secondary school students but also the hospitality industry workers, through our Hospitality programmes. 

As an educator, I've always been aware of my own shortcomings. With English being my second language, I've always felt my language is lacking in many areas, and I often wish I could write and speak in a more professional and fluid way. For this reason, I have always felt I wasn’t good enough.

Surprisingly, it is because of my use of layman terms, that makes our programmes more appealing to my students, for young generations and adults alike.

I came across this TedTalk from John Marshall and I was hooked from the first minute, when he he had the following to say about Climate Change:

“What we have here, is a failure to communicate”. The terminology around Climate Change is a difficult one and so it seems a totally abstract concept to people, words become obstacles rather than aids, and this...

I am beyond privileged that my weekly work allows me to meet Hotel teams from all over the world.

There is nothing more satisfying than one of your students surpassing your expectations!

This was exactly the case when I met the team at the Kingsley Hotel in Cork, Ireland. They have recently availed of our current Irish offering, where in collaboration with the Kildare & Wicklow Education & Training Board, our Green Business programme is fully funded for all Irish Hospitality & Tourism businesses.

I led a training session which was aimed at motivating and guiding their Green Team where to my surprise, it was their efforts and actions already implemented around sustainability, that motivated me!

I could not pass this opportunity to write about just one of the areas the Kingsley Hotel, and in particular their Housekeeping Manager Jared Warner MIASI, has worked on for several years now: The Green Bedroom.

I had the pleasure to interview Jay about his own sustainability...

It is no secret that Climate Change is the biggest threat to our planet in modern times.

The irony of this colossal problem, is that more than likely it will not be the “adults” of this generation that will suffer the worst effects and consequences, of the current broken systems for safeguarding our planet. It is in fact, Generation Tomorrow that will have to deal with this devastation.

Even armed with this knowledge, we are still choosing to rest on our laurels and remain permanently stuck in our old ways of thinking about our educational system.

We continue to work and push the agenda of the old frameworks of recognition and accreditation for our students. We continue to provide linear learning from teacher to student even while knowing that this is not what the teachers and students want.

Last month I had the privilege to connect with Kirsty Knowles, a visionary, dynamic and astute education leader based in the UK. Kirsty has written an Education piece titled ...

The Irish times has published an article entitled “Five trends in Green Finance”. It states that:

“The European Commission published a statement this year estimating that 42 per cent of corporate websites contain “exaggerated, false or deceptive and could potentially qualify as unfair commercial practices under EU rules”.

I have often asked myself “Why do we not have clear guidelines and benchmarks established by our leaders to avoid Green Washing?”

One would think that after the Paris agreement becoming such a landmark treaty that laws and systems would have been put in place by now to ensure its validity. 

Evidently, we are not there yet.

The term Greenwashing was first coined in the 1980's to describe behaviour or activities that make people believe that a company is doing more to protect the environment than it actually is.

So what can you do to avoid green washing?

In your organisation:

1. Never ever claim you do...

 A question a lot of us cannot help but ask ourselves – how do I compare to others?

It is no different when it comes to a business; in fact, the competition gets steeper.

As we work with more and more hospitality businesses to get them started on their Green Journey, this same question continues to get asked from our students:

How do my Green key performance indicators compare to other businesses?

Personally, I am delighted that people ask this question because it means that not only they have calculated their own Green KPIs, but also it demonstrates their desire to do better, to be in line with good practice standards and data.

Our advice at the Fifty Shades Greener office is always the same –

DO NOT COMPARE YOUR DATA TO ANYONE ELSE.

At least for the moment!

When you start your business’s Green Journey, there is no value in comparing your status to others. The only thing you need to do, is benchmark against yourself. This means you have one solitary goal, and...

Food, what a waste!

It is estimated that we waste about a third of all the food that we produce for human consumption. One third...that is a LOT of food.

Producing food requires an enormous 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 – all to produce food that we purchase and then throw away uneaten?

This is not a scare tactic, but 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.

Where are we going wrong?

There is no question that globally, our food systems are broken. I have spoken previously about the disconnect that currently exists between us and our food. Purchasing food is no longer the...

Last week I was invited to speak at the Hospitality & Tourism Expo organized by the Restaurants Association of Ireland.

When I finished my presentation the audience and I had an opportunity for a quick Q&A, with one questions coming up several times:

How can I get my team to engage with Green Actions?

This is a recurring issue for many business owners and a difficult barrier to get through.

While I do not have all the answers, namely because this barrier involves human psychology and our adversity to “change”… I do have 8 tips that you can try out:

1. You cannot implement a Green Programme alone if you run a medium to large business. Period. You will need a Green Manager and a Green Team. Choose these people with care. The first instinct here would be to work with all your heads of department, but while they need to be involved in some capacity, it is important that you do not forget about your Junior Staff. There might be many hidden “green...