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Kieron Bailey: Introduction
Play It Green is proud to welcome Kieron Bailey as our Hospitality Growth Partner, supporting our work with pubs, restaurants, hotels and hospitality groups.
Kieron brings more than two decades of experience across the hospitality sector, including time as a Wagamama multi-site operator, international operations with Hard Rock Cafe, pub operations, consultancy, podcasting and sector conversations around culture, marketing and leadership.
He knows the pressure hospitality operators are under because he has worked inside the sector, led teams, supported operators and built relationships with people who care deeply about doing things properly.
This appointment makes sense commercially, but it also makes sense philosophically.
Hospitality is a people business. It runs on trust, service, teams, pressure, experience and reputation. So any sustainability model that wants to work in hospitality has to understand the reality of the sector, not just the language of sustainability.
That is where Kieron Bailey’s experience comes in.
He understands the difference between something that sounds good in a deck and something that actually works in a busy venue, hotel, pub or restaurant group. He also brings values that sit closely with the way Play It Green works: accountability, empathy and the willingness to face difficult conversations honestly.
A Practical Model for Hospitality
The Play It Green hospitality initiative helps operators create verified nature repair, measurable social impact, team education and local good through a simple, optionally removable amount on a bill, booking or room stay.
That contribution funds verified nature repair across land, coast and sea, supports measurable social impact in restoration communities, and gives 10% back to a good cause chosen by the operator.
Every partner business also receives free sustainability education for their teams, signposting for the business, clear reporting and transparent impact data backed by verification, including GPS, satellite, drone, bioacoustics and blockchain tracking.
For hospitality businesses, this means impact does not need to sit outside the day-to-day operation. It can be built into the way guests already pay, book, stay and engage, while keeping choice clearly in the hands of the customer.
That last part is so important.
The guest or customer always has the choice to remove the contribution. It is visible, clear and honest, because trust is part of the model.
Why Accountability Matters
Hospitality has every right to be sceptical of green claims.
Operators have seen too many sustainability ideas that are difficult to explain, difficult to prove or difficult to operate in the real world. Teams are often expected to support sustainability activities without enough education, and customers are increasingly alert to claims that sound good but do not show the evidence behind them.
Play It Green was built to avoid that.
Our model combines practical education, verified nature repair, measurable social impact, good cause giving and transparent reporting. It is designed to help businesses take action they can explain clearly to their teams, customers and stakeholders.
Kieron’s role will be to help us grow this work across hospitality in a way that respects the sector, challenges weak thinking where needed and builds relationships around trust rather than sales pressure.
“I’ve known Kieron for over a decade,” said Richard Dickson, founder of Play It Green. “He understands how hospitality actually works, not just how people talk about it from the outside. He is direct, experienced, engaging and respected, but he also cares about people. That combination is exactly what we need as we grow our hospitality work.”
Why Kieron Wanted to Join
For Kieron Bailey, the opportunity is about more than commercial growth.
“The sustainability world has a greenwashing problem, and most people in hospitality know it,” said Kieron Bailey. “Operators are tired of being sold things that look good and do very little. What drew me to Play It Green is that the impact is real, verified and designed around how hospitality actually operates.”
“The guest gets a genuine choice, teams get education they can understand, and operators get something practical they can stand behind. It is that mix of accountability, empathy and real-world delivery which is exactly the kind of work I want to be part of.”
Impact Across the Whole Business
The strength of the hospitality model is that it creates value at several levels.
For operators, it offers a practical way to connect everyday customer activity with verified impact, without creating unnecessary friction.
For guests, it provides a visible and voluntary way to support nature repair, social impact and a chosen good cause.
For teams, it brings sustainability education into the business so impact is not just something reported by leadership, but something staff can understand, talk about and feel part of.
For good causes, it creates an additional route of support connected to normal trading activity.
For restoration communities, it helps fund nature repair work that supports employment, income, healthcare, banking access, food security and wider social impact.
This is the type of joined-up impact Play It Green was created to deliver.
Building on Strong Foundations
Play It Green already has strong foundations in hospitality through existing operator relationships, charity partnerships and low-friction impact models.
Kieron’s appointment gives us the sector knowledge, relationships and operational understanding to build on that work properly.
“This is a genuinely exciting moment for Play It Green,” added Richard. “Kieron joins at the right time, with the right experience, to help us do something meaningful with the hospitality sector and for it.”
We are delighted to welcome Kieron to Play It Green and look forward to sharing more as the hospitality initiative grows.
If you enjoyed this article on Kieron Bailey, why not become part of a community creating positive change by partnering with Play It Green and receive these tips weekly straight to your inbox?
We help you reduce your footprint, repair the planet, and regive to social causes that matter, all through simple, measurable actions that fit your business.
Modern employees, consumers, and investors want to see impact, not promises. With Play It Green, your sustainability journey becomes visible, credible, and rewarding.
Join us today and turn good intentions into lasting results.
