Business in the Community was set up 25 years ago against a backdrop of high unemployment and urban rioting in the UK. A few leaders in the business community had the vision and foresight to know that business had a vital role to play in offering solutions, driven not by pure altruism, but because it was the right thing to do for business – “healthy back streets make for healthy high streets”. This was the start of our organisation.

Now we have a simple mission – to use our enormous store of knowledge and the leadership of our 800-plus member companies, networks and expertise to inspire, engage, support and challenge companies to make a positive impact, not only in our communities but in our workplac-es, our marketplaces and our environment.

Our values are to act with integrity, to inspire companies by sharing our knowledge and experience and to develop innovative and challenging ways to be a catalyst for change. We support and challenge companies to integrate responsible business through their operations to have a positive impact on society and therefore be of public benefit.

We inspire through the networks, knowledge and experience of our members by providing effective and prestigious platforms, awards and endorsements to communicate their companies’ commitment to responsible business, which inspires others to do likewise.

We engage by harnessing the power of our membership to work collaboratively to achieve maximum impact in the most deprived communities in tackling key social issues.

We support and challenge through a range of products and services that help to integrate responsible business in the four impact areas of work-place, marketplace, community and the environment to improve business performance.

However, in more recent times the challenge has just got a whole lot more urgent. The current environment demands collaborative action as business seeks to find innovative processes and products that can meet the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

To succeed we need answers to be simple and practical – people and companies must be able to relate to the issues and understand the part they can play. Our key areas of business action and involvement and all our campaigns are directly linked to inspiring, engaging, supporting and challenging member companies to reach ever higher levels of positive impact.

Looking back at all those years of Business in the Community and the responsible business movement, it is clear that we have come a long way, but with new challenges ahead, we are using this, our 25th year, to look forward to the next 25 years.

Stephen Howard is the managing director of Business in the Community

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