Raquel Noboa is the Founder and CEO of Fifty Shades Greener, and her mission is to bring environmental and social sustainability education to curriculums at all levels of education, ranging from Primary to Third Level education. The goal is to contribute to building a carbon-conscious society that is aware of its environmental impact and understands the consequences of its decisions on others.
In her role as CEO, Raquel shoulders numerous responsibilities. Ultimately, she is the one accountable for the organization’s actions, and the successes and failures of her team become her own. Raquel considers herself the moral compass of the organization, safeguarding its values.
For Raquel, the most rewarding moments of her day come from witnessing the successes of clients, students, and team members. Seeing them thrive, learn, and make positive changes is what motivates her and keeps her going.
Below are highlights of the interview conducted between World’s Leaders and Raquel Noboa:
Describe who you are as a person, inside and outside of the workplace.
Growing up, my father was a politician for the Labour Party in Spain. He dedicated his career to ensuring social justice was applied within Spain’s society after the dictatorship ended in the late 1970s and was involved in the universal health reform in Spain as well as the “Cities without Barriers” movement and setting up centers for the most vulnerable in society. My entire childhood was exposed to a way of thinking where humans looked after other humans.
As a child, I was also a nature junkie, with my best memories being spent in nature, playing in forests and parks, learning about insects and butterflies, and loving all species.
Now at 43, my love for people and the planet remains one of my key priorities. I am blessed to live in rural Ireland, in a place of magical energy, the Burren, right beside the Cliffs of Moher.
My husband is Irish; we have no children, but we share our home with cats, dogs, and hens to date. My ultimate dream is to establish an animal sanctuary where I can respond to animals in need and give them a proper place to live until they are re-homed in the right families.
As a person, I am not blessed with patience; I like things to be done yesterday, and therefore, I am my worst self-critic, which is not a great way to be, particularly as a businesswoman. I have spent the past few years trying to change that mindset, and I am improving, although quite slowly.
One of my biggest fears is to let people down—friends, family, team members, and my clients—so I try to overachieve in all my relationships, which can become quite exhausting!
Tell us about the inception of the company. How did it all start?
My own green journey started in 2004, without even my knowing so. I was working in the Maldives that year when the Boxing Day tsunami hit the Indian Ocean on the 26th of December 2004. From that point on, I suffered from eco-anxiety for more than a decade. But of course, at the time, I did not know what that was. I had an irrational fear of natural disasters and the end of humankind, and I felt unable to speak to anyone about it because I thought people would think I was crazy.
In 2013, I was working in a small hotel on the west coast of Ireland, Hotel Doolin. My general manager came to work one day and told me he wanted to run the greenest hotel in Ireland and appointed me as the hotel green manager. At the time, that job title did not really exist, and I had no idea what to do. I guess up until then, I thought that carbon emissions were things that only scientists and politicians argued about. When I learned I could measure the hotel’s emissions and environmental impact, this became my turning point, as I realized that if I could measure that impact, I also had an opportunity to reduce it.
Knowledge is powerful, and most importantly, it is impowering. My eco-anxiety started to get better because I felt there was something I could do about climate change, however small that contribution might be. If I reduced my workplace carbon emissions, I was finally doing my best for the planet we all share, and that made me feel powerful in my own life.
In 2017, I finally took the plunge, and I founded Fifty Shades Greener as an environmental education company. My life mission became to teach others what I had learned on my own green journey.
See my story told in a video that was commissioned by UNESCO this year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUtZzm6kIpM&t=9s
What has made you successful? What do you value?
At Fifty Shades Greener, we put people, planet, and profit at the forefront of our strategies, but in that exact order, we firmly believe that if we look after people, we stand a better chance that they will look after the planet and, in turn, our financial profit.
What has made us successful is our collaborative approach, building relationships and partnerships with other people and other organisations for a shared purpose.
What is most important to me is our action-based education, because true sustainable development will not be achieved by rehearsing learning outcomes or understanding the theory; it will be achieved when every member of society understands their role in the Green transition and adopts behavioral changes to change their current habits.
What are the most important aspects of a company’s culture? What principles do you believe in and how do you build this culture?
For me, the most important part of our organization is our team; without them, we are nothing. We believe in learning and development, not only for our clients but for all of us working at FSG. We offer a work-life balance; our team can choose to work 4 days per week. We put a huge emphasis on their own development and invest money every year in their own professional development, which in turn has seen us increase our contracts, international reach, and profit year on year. This learning and development culture led us to win the Princess Royal Education and Training Awards in 2023.
https://www.princessroyaltrainingawards.com/2023-recipients/
We believe in a culture of equality; up until 2023, my salary was the exact same as that of every member of the team, as I firmly believed that nobody’s job is more important than another.
I had to change this policy in January 2023 as the company is rapidly growing and I was faced with the challenge of hiring managers to create teams within the organization. However, our ethical responsibility to equality remains. In 2022, 30% of our total revenue was spent on employee’s salaries, 18% of total revenue was spent on management and directors’ salaries, 17% of total profit was spent on environmental projects, and 6% of total profit was spent on social community projects.
We practice what we preach, see our 2022 ESG report here
Give us your opinion on; do organizations rely heavily on individual heroics or team processes?
In my opinion, many organizations are missing a trick when it comes to their teams. By putting people first, we can ensure we have a happier, more efficient workforce and increase our profit. As a business owner, I understand that putting people before profit is hard. There is a need to find a balance between both, which is hard to achieve, and even when you find it, there will be people challenging that balance all the time. What I know for sure is that the people I work with are paramount to our financial sustainability; hence, they are my most important stakeholder, and it is my job to protect their wellbeing.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
Always be kind to yourself and others! Mistakes are learning opportunities, not failures. Don’t criticize yourself for the things you can’t achieve right now; they are your goals for the future. And lastly, work on turning your weaknesses into your best assets. Two years ago, public speaking was my biggest fear. I would stand on a stage and shake like a leaf to the point of not being able to say a word. Now that I love public speaking, I am a storyteller, and I have had the opportunity to speak to very important audiences like the United Nations and the European Commission, making public speaking one of my biggest marketing tools.
In January 2023 I was named as a Green Light of Ireland
