BIER Member Spotlight: Juan José Ramos

Name: Juan José Ramos | EHS and Sustainability Manager

Company: Casa Sauza / Beam Suntory

Welcome to our series aimed at spotlighting BIER projects. As part of our Member and Stakeholder spotlight series featuring the individual leaders within BIER member companies and stakeholder organizations, our project spotlight series highlights BIER member companies and stakeholder organizations involved in the innovative Charco Bendito project.

Learn how these practitioners and their companies have collaborated to develop and implement this innovative, first-of-its-kind, basin-level watershed initiative addressing three main goals: water accessibility, quality, and availability. Gain insights into key learnings and what inspires each of them to advance environmental sustainability in the beverage sector and collectively, overall.

Briefly describe your role and responsibilities and how long you have worked with your company.

I am Juan José Ramos Hernández, EHS and Sustainability Manager at Tequila Sauza. I lead our operation’s environment, health and safety strategy to ensure the health and safety of our employees and the protection of the environment, in support of our company’s long-term sustainability commitments. I have been working at Tequila Sauza for 16 years.

I’m proud to represent Tequila Sauza as part of the Charco Bendito project and to be able to collaborate with the Knowledge Management Committee.

What were the initial drivers or incentives that committed you to the Charco Bendito project?

Water is a precious resource that we must use responsibly for the benefit of future generations. Beam Suntory is firmly committed to this cause and has set ambitious sustainability goals to help us achieve it. This includes replenishing more water in our high-risk watersheds than we use in our direct operations by 2040. This will ensure that our own operations, the communities where our distilleries are located, and local farmers and growers have access to high-quality water for the long term.

One of our primary focus areas is working on nature-based solutions that ensure the sustainability of water resources in our high-risk watersheds. We identified that our manufacturing site in Mexico is located in a high-risk watershed, meaning we must be mindful and work to solve for the long-term quantity and quality water needs of our Casa Sauza distillery, which boasts one of the lowest water consumption rates in the tequila industry.

To address this issue, Tequila Sauza is proud to be a part of this collaborative effort with BIER and other manufacturing companies to restore and protect the watershed of the Lerma-Santiago River Basin.

Learn more about Juan José Ramos in this BIER Member Spotlight.