New Year Message from our Chief Executive

Happy New Year on behalf of Business in the Community to all our members, partners and stakeholders. Welcome to the first of our monthly members newsletters for 2012, bringing you the latest news views and developments from across BITC and our member companies.

This time of year gives us an opportunity to renew our focus and make responsible business resolutions. Our resolution is to work even closer with our members to achieve a bigger impact in our communities by taking to scale the most effective initiatives, particularly those which focus on key areas such as education, employment and enterprise. 

As we enter our 30th anniversary year our proven track record and experience brings us great clarity on the crucial role of businesses in supporting local communities, which is why we are running an Emergency Community Summit to address the social and economic challenges faced by our communities and provide practical advice and support on how to scale this up.   

Another key priority for this year is a renewed emphasis on responsible leadership throughout this year - kicking off with our latest research. We will continue to champion fresh thinking and are delighted to announce additions to the movement to help us achieve this.  We welcome Dr Alan Knight OBE as our new Environmental Sustainability Director.  Building on our leadership, we are today welcoming Jonathan Moulds from Bank of America Merrill Lynch as Chair of the Arts & Business leadership team. In addition,  Heineken UK MD Stefan Orlowski  has taken up the Marketplace campaign leadership role and Irwin Lee, Vice President and Managing Director for P&G UK is the new Chair of Workwell campaign. These additions strengthen our leadership and bring fresh ideas into the organisation and help us to continually improve our campaigns and build participation in the responsible business agenda.

Over the coming quarter we expect a surge of entries to our Awards for Excellence in the lead up to the closing date on March 6.. 150 of our business leaders will report to HRH The Prince of Wales on the impact of Seeing is Believing during the annual SIB report back at the end of his month.  In March our annual Responsible Business Convention in London will bring together the most interesting thinking and innovation from practitioners. 

It’s a busy schedule – which is only made possible by the commitment and support of our members and dedication of our staff. 

We look forward to working together to make 2012 the year of Responsible Business.

Stephen Howard