We are sure you already know that we are in a climate crisis caused mainly by our GHG emissions. But have you ever heard about Scopes, and more specifically, about Scope 3 emissions? In this post, we explain the basics and the first steps you can take to start measuring and managing them. 

🌱 What are Scope 3 emissions? 

Most of the companies use the GHG Corporate Protocol guide to calculate their greenhouse gas emissions. According to it, the emissions are classified in Scopes 1,2,3 and are the basis for GHG reporting. 

- Scope 1 covers the direct emissions from company facilities and vehicles 

- Scope 2 covers the indirect emissions coming from purchased electricity, heat and steam 

- Scope 3 covers the rest of the indirect emissions (coming from business travel, purchased goods and services, waste disposal, use of sold products, investment, transportation and distribution…) 

In short, Scope 3 emissions are the indirect GHG emissions that occur in a company’s supply chain. 

Gone are the days when business was just ‘business’, with economics and essentially ‘making money’ at any cost, taking precedence above all. 

The bottom line was the sole focus of all shareholders, CEOs, chair people and executive managers. It was really that black and white. 

Where was the human element of business? And if it was there, where did it factor for business people? 

Businesses both large and small have a responsibility to their community, to their society, to their environment and to their team, to ultimately ‘self-regulate’ and look at their impact on those areas. Cost savings are important, financial turnover is important, however it has become increasingly apparent that when it comes to ‘business as usual’, those with tunnel vision won’t last in the competitive world of corporations and enterprise. 

Many companies believe that simply throwing money at charities or environmental projects is sufficient, however CSR like with a business’ green programme, needs to be ...

How many plastic bottles of water or soft drinks do you purchase every month? Or every week or every year?

There is a lot of talk about reducing plastic as it continues to end up in our oceans and rivers, but there isn’t too much talk about the possible harmful effects that plastic might have on our own health! 

We are not here to scare anyone or tread the fine line of coming across as a “conspiracy theorist". However many scientists have investigated plastic and the harmful chemicals it can release in liquids and food, so we want to take a look at the facts available to us.

A report from https://www.consumerreports.org/  states that researchers analysed 34 everyday plastic products made out of eight different types of plastic to see how common toxicity might be. 74% of the products they tested were toxic in some way or another.

Is it fair to presume that the average consumer such as ourselves presumes that if plastic is being used to package our food and drink, that it must be s...

In today’s world of instability, there are certain parts of our daily lives both personally and in business that we feel we have SOME amount of control over. 

The COVID Climate that still shadows us daily, has reinforced the idea of personal responsibility across the globe and it came down to the simple tasks of social distancing and hygiene.

Washing your hands, cleaning down surfaces and touch points - there was and is, a real palpable fear of dropping the ball, resulting in serious consequences both for the human element and for your business. 

Within all industries, there is a need for sanitation and cleaning. Some require it more than others. But sanitation has leapt up the scale and is now a top priority.  

Something we can speak from experience with at the 50 Shades Greener office, is cleaning within the hospitality industry. It doesn’t matter the department that we worked in, there would always be an element of it involved. 

Often you would find yourself working with cle...

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

Sustainability is a word that is thrown around constantly and in so many scenarios that it becomes an unachievable task and a blurry concept in our minds. So we want to demystify 'sustainability' and break it into actionable steps: 

Calculate your current Carbon Emissions

Once again, this is easier than you might think.

1. Firstly you need to begin to analyse and understand your utility bills for waste, water and energy. 
2. Set up a system and assign a person from your team to monitor the CO2 kg produced at your business 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 being used, where and when is water being used and where and what waste is being produced. 
4. Provide team training to your employees fro...

In collaboration with the Confederation of Tourism & Hospitality (CTH), Fifty Shades Greener has created the first Level 4 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 with the first green manager awarded the qualification in April of this year!  

This is truly a pinch me moment for me, having suffered from impostor syndrome for years, to have one of my programmes validated in a framework of education is an amazing achievement.  

Sustainable Hospitality

FSG was born out of the hospitality sector, with all people in my team having come from a background in hospitality, and our educational programmes respond to an urgent need to address the sector’s environmental impact, attract new talent and reduce cost. 

Reducing carbon emissions should be something that becomes paramount in our daily routines if we really want to provoke a mind-set chan...

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...

In this piece I will offer some handy tips that any Hospitality business can take to start reducing their waste production, and what happens when you produce less waste? You save MONEY off your waste bill! 

Waste is one of the most colossal challenges of our times. Waste production continues to increase, Ireland is facing a potential waste mountain with no place to go, for some facts and stats continue reading to the end of this blog. 

What is one of the first but most important steps to start reducing waste at your hospitality business?

Check your bins

It's a simple task but certainly not one that people want to engage with. I myself have carried this task out during my time as green manager.

However one thing is for sure, I learned from it and I in carrying out this onerous task, we managed to reduce our waste by 30% in one year. 

Investigating your bins allows you to understand what waste is produced at your business, so you can then take the necessary action to reduce some ...

The linear economy or “take-make-use-waste” model is being exposed for its severe negative consequences environmentally. 

Society is realising that our systems are no longer serving us. On our current trajectory worldwide, waste generation will have increased by 70% by 2050 – that’s 3.4 billion metric tons! (Global waste generation - statistics & facts | Statista). 

The message of reduce, reuse, repair, repurpose and then recycle is slow to take real effect in counteracting this waste problem.  In the Hospitality industry we need to rethink: not what we offer but how we offer it –and the consequential waste from our decisions.  

The Hotel Yard 

One missed opportunity is when renovations are taking place at a Hospitality property.  Furniture, which is still perfectly useable is being thrown in the skip in large quantities. There is an alternative. Fifty Shades Greener has collaborated with Otolo, a global online hospitality forum, for an initiative named “The Hotel Yard”. Hospital...

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...