Sustainability in business has too often been reduced to a checklist, recycling bins, LED lighting, low-flow taps… Yet, what truly drives meaningful change isn’t the hardware; it’s the people. That’s the premise behind the Leaf Mark™ Certification, Ireland’s new sustainability accreditation created by Fifty Shades Greener.

Earlier this month, the Mespil Hotel in Dublin became the first organisation in the country to achieve the top-tier ‘Three Leaves’ status under this programme. It’s a milestone worth celebrating, not just for the hotel, but for what it signals about the future of corporate responsibility in Ireland.

A Certification that Starts with People

Unlike traditional environmental certifications that assess systems and infrastructure, the Leaf Mark™ puts people front and centre. It recognises businesses that invest in sustainability education for their teams, embedding knowledge, awareness, and accountability into the fabric of daily operations.

As Fifty Shades Greene...

“Fly if you like, I won't judge you” was a statement that Greta Thunberg gave to The Sunday Times Magazine as she turned 18.

This sentence really got me thinking about influence and divisive ideals and opinions. Something we are seeing more and more in modern society in the midst of this Trump era, is the rise of the far right all over the world and more worryingly - extremism. 

The definition of polarising is ‘to cause something, especially something that contains different people or opinions, to divide into two completely opposing groups: “The debate is becoming polarised and there seems to be no middle ground.”’

We have all seen first hand the damage that a destructive leader can do during Trump’s presidency, culminating in the assault on the Capitol Building on January 6th. 

Radicalism or fundamentalism of any “idea” is never a good path to follow. We need to allow that as humans, as a society, people are going to have different points of view and opinions. Opinions that are re...