Staff Spotlight: Celine Suarez

Authors

• Celine Suarez

  Former Manager, BSR

What is your position at BSR?
Here in our New York office, I primarily focus on the travel and tourism industry. I also work on projects that help companies engage with the world of socially and environmentally conscious investors. With a background as an analyst for socially responsible investment and research firms, I also work with our member companies on developing business-aligned sustainability strategies and help them think about how to engage shareholders and other stakeholders.

What are you personally most excited to be working on?
It’s an incredible time to be working with companies in the travel and tourism industry—which covers hotel chains, airlines, cruises, and online travel booking companies—because they are only just beginning to realize the potential shared value that exists between their business strategies and global sustainability. The reach of travel and tourism shouldn’t be underestimated—it touches everyone, and in aggregate, it’s one of the largest industries in the world—so there’s real potential to have a big impact on BSR’s mission.

Right now, we’re helping companies in the space deal with everything from human trafficking to local community engagement to supply chain sustainability to climate change. Thanks to our global team, we can tap into our experience in other industries like food, beverage, and agriculture as well as transportation, which have a lot of overlap with the travel and tourism industry.

What company or initiative has inspired you recently?
I am really inspired by our Migration Linkages and HERproject initiatives. These are highly impactful partnerships that address challenges faced by migrant workers and women in factories and farms. As I think about the travel and tourism industry, there is potential to develop a partnership that addresses an issue like human trafficking. A surprising number of people in developing countries—and in the United States and Europe—end up exploited as modern-day slaves. Hotel companies and others in the travel and tourism industry could have an enormous impact in supporting local entrepreneurship and offering job training and resources, both to victims as they recover and with the intention of eliminating the causes of human trafficking worldwide. I’d love to see this kind of work develop with our members.