Industries and roles within those industries are an ever changing landscape.

Who would have thought that Hotels and Restaurants, would need Green Managers in 2020? I know I didn’t!

I became a Green Manager myself in 2012, when that title barely existed, and it was one of the most rewarding positions of my courier to date. Fast-forward 8 years, and appointing the right Green Manager is one of the most important decisions you will make from a HR point, that will affect your business over the next 5 years.

Winter is coming and with that, a downfall on Hotel occupancy in Ireland and every country in the world. We are lucky to a point here, as the government has put in place a wage subsidy scheme, to help hospitality businesses pay their staff wages.

But how are you going to use that scheme to it’s full advantage? If you have less customers will you reduce your employee’s hours? Will you let go some people that might be valuable to your team?

The perfect storm has been...

Sustainability doesn’t have to be an unattainable goal, or something in the distance that we all know exists but we fail to pursue. There are so many small changes we can all implement in our lives and workplaces that will directly affect our use of resources and our production of a carbon footprint.

When I founded Fifty Shades Greener in 2017, my mission was to train the hospitality workforce in Ireland, so we could live up to our name, the Emerald Island, providing green accommodation to our overseas visitors.

Fast forward a couple of years and my goal grew legs. I now want to teach every single hospitality worker in the world the little things we can all do to change our behaviour around the use of energy and water and production of waste.

A new partnership between Fifty Shades Greener and Dalhousie University’s College of Continuing Education will help bring this dream to life as we work together to green the hospitality industry in Canada.

For more than 35 years,...

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...

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...

When I first founded Fifty Shades Greener in 2017, my mission was to help Green the Hospitality industry in Ireland. It was a simple mission and quite achievable, little did I know my “vision” would grow legs from there, and 3 years later I would be expanding to international markets.

I have worked in the Hospitality Industry all my life, since I was 17, starting in night clubs, moving to Hotels and climbing the ranks over the years. I loved working in the industry, I have met the most amazing people through the places I have worked in, but as I near my 40’s, there were many reasons why I knew I needed a change.

The hours are long

The life style is fast paced

The patience sometimes starts thinning!!

Discovering the concept of “Green Hospitality” was a life changer for me. All of a sudden, I realised there was more to hospitality than I originally thought. It is not just about serving customers, making budgets and a good RevPar every month. Resource...

Climate crisis, biodiversity collapse and extinguished eco systems are common words we hear every so often in recent years.

But what can I do about it?

Can I change it?

And if I can’t, should I care?

In a post COVID economy, business owners have enough to worry about without also joining the fight against climate change. However, can running greener business help recover the tourism and hospitality industry?

I think YES.

Benefits of running a Green Business

• A Green business is one that reduces it’s energy, water and waste, when you reduce your utilities you also SAVE money.

• Align your business to your customer values: 87% of global travellers want to travel more sustainably.

• Green Marketing & PR: Jump ahead of your competitors and offer something different that society wants.

• Improve staff turnover: Give your team something they care about and make your workplace a better choice for employees.

It is now more important than...

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...

Do you own or run a Hospitality Business? And do you know how much money are you putting in the bin? Food Waste is a REAL issue.

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.

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 waste company...

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.

Wait, What??

To say I was apprehensive at the start it is an understatement!

I had no idea where to start.

I attended workshops, seminars, did and endless amount of courses and read blogs about Green businesses.

Within 2 years and with little or none 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

This point of my career, change my life forever. The Why isn’t everyone doing this? Started forming an idea in my head.

What if I could teach other hotel managers achieve the same...

I studied Hotel Management back in the late 90’s and early 2000. It was 4 years of my life when I had the most fun, and met what would become my best friends for life. During my time in college they taught us how to do a business budget, how to forecast, how to control staff wages and dealing with a team of people. But the funny thing is, nobody told us, that when we became Hotel Managers, we would also have to manage a building.

A building, that comes with really high running costs on energy, water and waste. These utility bills, can amount to be, after staff wages, the second largest cost to your business. Yet, learning how to control, monitor and reduce them, never came into play during my years as a trainee manager.

I have worked in the hospitality industry for 20 years, but the first time I learned about an Environmental management system, was in 2012. And today, having worked as a Green consultant for nearly 3 years, I still meet hotel and restaurant managers every week...