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Celebrating a milestone year: 2024 highlights from the Embrace Difference Council

Celebrating a milestone year: 2024 highlights from the Embrace Difference Council

What an absolutely stellar year it has been for the Embrace Difference Council.

In 2024, we achieved many significant milestones that highlight our commitment to progress and inclusivity.

Importantly, the Embrace Difference Council restructured to a four-workstream framework to reflect our deepened commitment to addressing the diverse challenges our industry faces.

Our workstreams—Insights, Gender, Inclusion, and Pride—each play a crucial role in driving positive change. Together, they will help us to better understand the needs of our members and the broader industry, providing vital data, initiatives, and resources to support progress.

We also refreshed our Contribution to Industry Awards categories this year to align with emerging priorities and challenges facing the drinks industry and introduce a renewed focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, wellbeing, and sustainability.

Other key achievements by the Embrace Difference Council this year included hosting our flagship 12th annual International Women’s Day event featuring inspiring keynote speaker Fiori Giovanni, we hosted three impactful events by the Pride in Drinks Workstream to encourage awareness and connection within our LGBTQIA+ community, and we launched our eighth Inclusive Leadership Mentoring Program with Serendis.

Last month, we released our second annual Diversity and Inclusion Report for 2023/2024, filled with insights and resources for advancing D&I. This comprehensive report combines the annual Diversity & Inclusion Scorecard with our Industry Toolkit to provide you with one streamlined resource that will support you in your efforts to make positive change, regardless of the size of your organisation.

Some key highlights from this year’s report include 44% of Drinks member companies saw an improvement in female representation at the manager level, but the flipside of this is that just 37% of managerial positions in Drinks member companies are held by women - this is up from 33% in 2022/2023, but still well below the all Australia-industry benchmark of 42%, so we still have work to do!

I encourage each of you to engage with this report, review the findings, and take action within your own organisations.

Early next year, the Embrace Difference Council will be launching the Respect in Drinks Charter - a commitment by members of the Drinks Association to recognise the inherent value of each person and uphold everyone’s right to dignity, equality and fair treatment. It’s another exciting milestone for our industry, and I hope all member companies will join in this commitment to champion respect and integrity in everything we do.

I couldn’t be prouder of the key achievements made by our dedicated, passionate Council members who, despite having demanding day jobs, generously contribute their time and passion to build an industry that is progressive, fair, and a genuinely rewarding place to work. I am continually inspired by their commitment to creating a stronger and more inclusive industry for everyone.

So thank you for an incredible year, and I look forward to all we’ll accomplish together in 2025.

Sandra Gibbs
Embrace Difference Council Chair