Melanie Richards is a Corporate Sustainability Practitioner and a pioneer in the field, having founded CSR Solutions Limited in 2007, a consultancy focused on working with organisations to become more socially and environmentally responsible. She was a founding member of the CSR Committee at the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce (TTCIC) established in 2008.
In 2011, Melanie was appointed by the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS) as the Chairperson of the National Mirror Committee in Trinidad and Tobago for ISO 26000 Standard on Social Responsibility, and was presented with a Special Service Award in 2014 in recognition of “Special Contribution and Service as Chairperson of a National Standards Committee”
She has worked with private sector, public sector and civil society in various aspects of sustainability and was the author of the very first Sustainability Report 2018 for The National Gas Company (NGC) of Trinidad and Tobago, using Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards, and has completed Sustainability Assurance on reports for many other multinationals in the oil and gas sector, using AA 1000 Accountability Assurance Standards.
Melanie went on to sit as the only expert from the region on the GRI Global Project Working Group established to develop a new Sustainability Standard for the Oil and Gas Sector, which was published in 2021.
She also spent eight years as the representative of the TTCIC to the Cabinet Appointed Trinidad and Tobago Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (TTEITI) Multi Stakeholder Group.
In 2022 Melanie went on sabbatical to pursue studies in law and was called to the bar as an Attorney at Law in November 2024.
She is very passionate about Civil Society and has focused her work in law on the Not for Profit sector to support good governance and capacity building.
Melanie attended the University of the West Indies where she obtained a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) Management (Tourism Specialisation), Master of Business Administration (MBA) Marketing, and Bachelor of Laws (LLB). She obtained a Legal Education Certificate (LEC) from the Council of Legal Education. She also holds a Master of Arts (MA) Corporate Social Responsibility from the University of Nottingham, and has completed the ACCA Levels Foundation (1) and Certificate (2).