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...

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...

 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 that is to reduce...