Women Rise: ARI underlines commitment to gender equality

Aer Rianta International (ARI) highlighted the role of its “incredible” senior female leaders within the business in an attention-grabbing ‘Women Rise’ campaign in March. In collaboration with The Moodie Davitt Report, ARI marked International Women’s Day with a home page campaign and video, which took social media by storm. ARI Chief People Officer Siobhán Griffin noted: “At ARI, our people are our greatest asset”. She described the Women Rise campaign as a “a declaration of our belief in the power to bring positive changes to every aspect of what we do”. She added: “It is an invitation to participate fully, an assurance that everyone’s ambitions are recognised. And it is a promise to our team, that gender will never be a deciding factor in who progresses faster or goes further. Not just on International Women’s Day, but every day.” Click here for more on this story.

Women for Bees

LVMH-owned beauty and fragrance house Guerlain teamed up this year with UNESCO to launch the ‘Women for Bees’ female beekeeping entrepreneurship programme. This is a five-year programme that offers training and education for aspiring female beekeepers. It equips participants with all the theoretical and practical knowledge they need to run a professional apiary [beehouse]. The objective, according to Guerlain, is to empower aspiring women beekeepers with expertise-driven training and sustainable livelihoods. Women for Bees graduates also become part of an international network of female beekeepers where they can share their learnings and help others. The programme welcomed its first graduates this year.The Women for Bees project is the latest in a series of bee conservation initiatives by Guerlain.

Redressing the Workplace Imbalance

Women in Travel Thrive (WITT) was established by a network of like-minded friends and associates in the travel industry who became deeply concerned about the disproportionate impact the pandemic was having on women and their careers. WITT was created to help reduce and redress that impact. At the Virtual Travel Retail Expo, Silvia Camarota, WITT Founder and Expedia Group Senior Director North American Market Management & Lodging, and Mary Wyse, Retail Analytics Manager at ARI, spoke eloquently about the group’s role in keeping women connected, offering a support system for women, faced with compounded financial and emotional stress.

Women make up 54% of COVID-related job losses and the age gap between men and women in travel is set to increase to 2% by the end of the pandemic, whenever that occurs. Much more than an organisation, WITT has become a movement for women in the industry. It has launched several initiatives that can tangibly help women during these difficult times (see also People of the Year).

Putting inclusion and diversity at the top of the corporate agenda

Beam Suntory aims to be rated as “the world’s most admired and fastest growing premium spirits company”, credentials that it underlined with vigour in 2021. Its huge focus on sustainability, diversity and inclusion was underlined by comments from Beam Suntory President and CEO Albert Baladi who said that efforts in these fields are “central to our company and doing business the right way”. “We must look and act more like our consumers, derive strength from diversity, and enrich our workplace through inclusion.”

Embracing our differences, while leveraging our unique East-meets-West competitive advantage, is essential to fostering innovation and collaboration, empowering our people to succeed, driving business growth, and creating greater value for customers, consumers and society. To make this a reality, we've set three 2030 ambitions to focus our actions.

Through its three-pillared Community Positive strategy, Beam Suntory is determined to reach 50% women in leadership positions globally by 2030. It also aims for a 45% racially and ethnically diverse employee representation in the US within the same time span. Employees are encouraged to use their skills and passions to support communities and charities around the world and are backed by three volunteer paid days off. And, with its philanthropy drive, Beam Suntory is investing in initiatives and organisations that support on-trade partners, build stronger communities and promote social justice. These key messages were reinforced by Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Victoria Russell and Vice President Global Environmental Sustainability Kim Marotta at the Virtual Travel Retail Expo Knowledge Hub in October (see video).

They outlined how Beam Suntory has stepped up its commitments to key environmental, social and corporate governance principles, which they say “matter now more than ever”. Russell noted that 2020 was an “inflection point”. She added: “We saw the global epidemic continue to surge and its impact around the world. We were witness to a global social justice movement that prompted all of us to reflect and ask ourselves three questions. “What actions will we take to address the systemic issues that have been pre-existing for so long? How can we change our world cultures and environments to ensure that everyone has both a seat at the table and a voice? And how do we create a culture and environment where every single person can grow, develop and thrive?” Russell pointed out that the pandemic reaffirmed the “important role we must all play to address and positively impact society’s most urgent challenges. Now we are seeing that the case for diversity, equity and inclusion is stronger than ever.”

Foreo takes a stand with Luna release

Swedish beauty tech and wellness company Foreo championed inclusivity, diversity and authenticity through its latest YOUnique Luna Devices, released in September. Each of the limited-edition devices is hand-crafted and decorated with a one-of-a-kind pattern after Foreo asked fans from around the world to identify inspiring individuals who have stood for gender equality, autism awareness, LGBTQ+ rights, mental health, and inclusivity.

After hundreds of nominations, Foreo chose five YOUnique Heroes. They included Louise ‘Neurodivergent Lou’, a 19-year-old autistic activist who documents her own autism journey to educate her followers about autism; gender-fluid fashion influencer Mark Bryan; poet Phoenix Pasquale, 14-year-old LGBTQ+ activist Rebekah Bruesehoff and blogger Alexy Vivien. Foreo Founder and CEO Boris Trupcevic commented: “There are only 100 of these limited-edition YOUnique Luna devices and each of them is an homage to all the amazing individuals out there fearlessly living their truth and unapologetically being their own version of beautiful — free of labels, limitations, and prejudice.”