I have been working as an educator for environmental sustainability for a few years now, and never have I been more disillusioned than in recent times.

I like many others, had confidence and trust in the many “labels” seen on products we consume. ‘Eco-labels’ - Free from Tuna, Sustainable Palm Oil, Carbon Neutral Certs…the list goes on. But as you dig a little deeper, you start to realise that the vast majority of these labels are smoke and mirrors. 

They are in many cases entities that are looking to make a profit above all else. Regardless of the promises and standards, their labels claim. That is not to say that false labelling applies to every business. However the more I research this issue the more of them I uncover. There is a real danger that this blatant greenwashing will create mistrust amongst society and consumers.

Every fortnight, I ask my team to complete research on something different related to environmental sustainability, so we can share our learnings and upskill ...

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,...

Utility bills are often looked at solely to see the total cost to be paid and then filed away. 

How many people analyse them to become more energy efficient? Now there are many options in terms of energy providers, and I think it is time that we took a minute to see how they can help us, their customers, to analyse the information they are giving us.  

A recent meeting with Pinergy Ireland has enlightened me on the way in which energy suppliers can be helpful to us in managing our use of energy. 

How we use our resources comes down to personal responsibility but having a provider who can offer data for us to monitor and decrease our use is a step in the right direction.  They can help us as we create positive changes by better understanding our consumption of energy.  

Also, there are now many energy providers who have moved away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.  This industry is changing.  Being less reliant on fossil fuel energy means that we, as a country, can move towar...

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...

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. As per Ethical Consumer, 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 reuse/recycling and affecting waste output.

Glass and Aluminium 

• They can be recycl...

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 shortages...

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 confusion becomes a deter...

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 journey and whi...

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 3R’s are just ...

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 more than what you actually do. Be honest and transparent in ...