SUNNINGDALE CONFERENCE

Leading American and British companies meet to share information and experiences about rising unemployment and growing tensions in inner cities.

BITC AND THE CBI TEAM UP

The CBI Special

Programmes Unit is amalgamated with BITC.

EMPLOYERS FORUM ON DISABILITY IS LAUNCHED

Find out more: https://businessdisabilityforum.org.uk

HRH LAUNCHES THE FIRST ONE TOWN PARTNERSHIP IN HALIFAX

Creating a blueprint for how a private/public sector partnership can work to improve a place bringing investment, jobs and the creation of new businesses to a town in need of economic regeneration.

BITC ESTABLISHES TARGET TEAMS

The forerunner to Leadership Teams, these 8 teams of business leaders explore aspects of regeneration which had been identified in dialogue with No. 10.

• Finance for enterprise
• Priority hiring /customised training programmes for the unskilled and unemployed.
• Local purchasing
• Marketing business action to SMEs
• Urban regeneration
• Voluntary sector initiatives
• Enterprise development
• Education partnership

HRH SENDS BUSINESS LEADERS BACK TO SCHOOL!

The Prince of Wales takes 20 Business leaders in to inner city schools

Following the launch of Education Compacts, HRH asked 20 business leaders to visit Compact Schools to see for themselves the issues faced in inner city schools. All learnt something new about the education system of the 1980s and were both surprised and encouraged by their commitment and enthusiasm of teachers and Heads for the future of young people.

BITC NORTHERN IRELAND SET UP

BITC Northern Ireland was set up primarily to promote corporate community involvement. Over 60 companies sign up at the launch event with Sir Hector Laing and Stephen O'Brien committing to further action.

HRH TAKES BUSINESS LEADERS TO CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

Over 100 leaders of multi-national businesses are convened by HRH to focus on the issues of Education, the Environment and Enterprise facing all businesses operating globally. This leads to the establishment of The Prince of Wales's Business Leaders Forum.

HRH LAUNCHES THE BLACKBURN PARTNERSHIP

Blackburn is the second 'One Town Partnership' to secure a better future for the people of Blackburn.

DIRECTIONS FOR THE NINETIES

The beginning of a new decade and corporate community involvement is maturing. We publish the strategy for the 1990s urging businesses to adopt the A.C.T.I.O.N model. All 3 leaders of the main political parties attend the launch - Prime Minister, John Major, Labour Leader Tony Blair and Liberal Democrat President Charles Kennedy.

HRH LEADS FIRST VISIT TO PENRHYS

Built in 1968 on top of a mountain overlooking the Rhondda, in the early 1990s only 8% of working age residents were in full-time employment. Over the coming decade Sir William Castell visited the housing estate many times and supported the local community to make it a more pleasant place to live.

Beginning of our Employee Volunteering Campaign

We learn how its done in America and formally begin our Employee Volunteering Programme. This grows into a regional Cares franchise, with 500 community challenges involving up to 8,000 people a year.

WE AIM HIGH!

The Aim High education campaign is launched to bring companies, schools and colleges together to raise young people's aspirations. 3 years, 150 companies and 1000s of young people later, it sits at the centre of BITC's work.

WORK IN SOCIETY LAUNCHED

What happens to business matters to society and what happens to society matters to business. An idea that grew from a conference hosted by HRH The Prince of Wales for his major charities, the Prince asked his charities to consider the implications of future employment trends for their own work.

LAUNCH OF ROOTS & WINGS

Beautifully simple, Roots & Wings is reciprocal mentoring between someone who works in business with someone who works in the voluntary or public sector. It was one of our early mentoring programmes and led the way for reciprocal mentoring @BITC over the coming 30 years. Just 2 years later the programme has been extended to supporting kids at risk of underachievement and 20 companies are on board reaching more than 1,000 kids at school.

GRANADA COMMUNITY CHALLENGE

1 company – Granada Television + 5 teams, 1000s of donations = 5 housing estates benefiting from £6.5m of new facilities. A brilliant example of business in the community.

PARTNERS IN LEADERSHIP

On the back of Seeing is Believing we work with KPMG to launch a pilot scheme in London mentoring headteachers, particularly providing support with management issues. This grows and grows to become a national programme – Partners in Leadership.

40 REGENERATION ACTION AREAS CREATED

We identify 40 places across England, Wales and Northern Ireland which urgently need business help to support local communities. This is our Place work simply by another name.

PRINCIPLES OF CCI

The 90s saw the development of new ways to measure and evaluate investment in the community, building on the early days of the Per Cent Club in the 80s. More sophisticated, the Principles helped companies to benchmark their performance, set targets to improve and support to communicate to shareholders and employees. Directly linked to the EFQM the Principles were used as judging criteria for the Awards in the late 90s.

BUSINESS ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS LAUNCHED

A partnership between business, homeless agencies and the Government, aiming to break the vicious cycle of 'no job, no home, no job'. The initial aim was to reduce the number of rough sleepers but this quickly developing into supporting people back into work. To date we have helped over 12,000 people facing barriers to employment and 5,000 of those into jobs.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: BT

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: UNITED UTILITIES

ALL PARTY PARLIAMENTARY GROUP ON Corporate Responsibility SET UP

Text to come from Gail

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: CO-OPERATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICES

RURAL ACTION LAUNCHED

Set up during the foot and mouth crisis of 2001 when not only farmers suffered but many whose livelihoods depended upon the rural economy. Rural Action was about helping business to harness the talent and energy of people living and working to support the rural economy. In 2010 the programme was spun off into a separate charity The Prince's Countryside Fund https://www.princescountrysidefund.org.uk

LAUNCH OF THE CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY INDEX

22 companies participated in the first voluntary CSR wide index; a straightforward tool to test how corporate values and beliefs were lived in the business.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: SCOTTISH POWER

DAVID VARNEY BECOMES CHAIR 2002 – 2004

David was chairman of O2 when he chaired BITC during 2002 – 2004. David said that business was in a "perfect storm" of reputational threats, in the aftermath of WorldCom, Enron, and other international business scandals. Expectations of business were growing massively, whilst perceptions of performance were declining dramatically.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: CARILLION

Benefits of Corporate Responsibility spelt out

Enron, Sarbanes Oxley… David Varney chaired BITC at a time of diminished trust in business. Our Business Case for Corporate Responsibility report spelt out the 6 benefits of an effective thorough approach, from reputation management, employee satisfaction through to financial performance. The principles of this document are still relevant today.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: MARKS & SPENCER

"WHAT'S THE NEWS ON THE RIALTO?"

We run Conversations at the British Museum, hosted by CEOs like Lord Browne who asked this question at his conversation. They cover a wide range of themes, chosen by the speaker.

NEIGHBOURHOOD RENEWAL PROGRAMME STARTS

Neighbourhood renewal is BITC bread and butter, and our roots lie in the business response to the civil disturbances of the early 1980s. In 2005 the chairs of the 5 Leadership Teams published recipes for neighbourhood success covering Education, Crime, Environment, Health and Employability.

BURNLEY RECEIVES A ROYAL VISIT

The Prince makes his first visit to Burnley as BITC President which is a catalyst for change, bringing the weight of 12 Prince's Charities to bear across the built environment, education, supporting SMEs, young people and community cohesion.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: MARKS & SPENCER

MARKETPLACE PRINCIPLES LAUNCHED

Being leadership behaviours to strive for. Here's the M&S example.

Reflecting on the first 25 years...

Reflecting on the first 25 years we publish a jubilee commentary marking change from the early days of championing business support for local enterprise agencies through to a more rounded view of business acting responsibly in all that it does.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: BT

MPs Guide to Responsible Business Published

We publish a guide for MPs to help them to support their constituents at community level.

HRH SOUNDS MAYDAY OVER CLIMATE CHANGE

More than 1,200 business leaders gather at St James's Palace and other venues around the country to hear The Prince of Wales issue a mayday distress call on climate change. By the end of the day over 1,000 companies had pledged to work with their suppliers, customers and employees to reduce their carbon emissions for the next two years HRH continued to convene business leaders calling for action to change business behaviour and over the coming years up to 5,000 companies join the Mayday Network pledging to work continuously to reduce the environmental impact of their operations.

NEW HEALTH CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED

We launch Business Action on Health, led by Alex Gourlay of Boots. Over the past 15 years this issue has moved beyond healthy eating and gym memberships to one of a core business issue, addressing mental health and corporate and personal wellbeing.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: CO-OPERATIVE FINANCIAL SERVICES

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: UNITED UTILITIES

THE BIG CONVERSATION STARTS

Led by our Chair, Sir Stuart Rose, we run a series of "Big Conversations" with hundreds of employers across the UK and launch new regional Work Inspiration Awards to recognise businesses of all sizes who provide inspiring and robust work experience placements for young people. By the end of 2010, over 1000,000 placements have been provided to young people. This leads to a longrunning programme advising business how is required to provide inspirational work experience and workplace visits for young people.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: UNILEVER

THE PRINCE'S BUSINESS EMERGENCY RESPONSE GROUP SET UP

In response to the floods in Cumbria, and at the request of HRH, we set up BERG to help smaller businesses get back on their feet after an emergency. BERG was mobilised after heavy flooding, e.g. in Cumbria, Ballater in Aberdeenshire, the Somerset Levels and after the "Beast from the East" storm.

THE PRINCE'S COUNTRYSIDE FUND LAUNCHED

We support the establishment of a new charity grown from the Rural Action Leadership Team – with £1m support provided by its founding companies to help the people who live in and look after the countryside https://www.princescountrysidefund.org.uk/

BUSINESS CLASS GAINS MOMENTUM

Building on work in the North West, we roll out Business Class, a 3-yr partnership between businesses and schools in 6 of the UK's 9 regions with 52 partnerships in some of the UK's most deprived areas.

START A BETTER WAY OF LIVING!

HRH The Prince of Wales leads a START tour to 10 towns in the UK, covering over 1,000 miles, to engage companies and consumers on the small changes each of us could make to reduce our impact on the environment. START merges into BITC and our environment work.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: WATES

GIVE & GAIN DAY GOES INTERNATIONAL

Working with the CSR360 Global Partner Network, we manage an international day of volunteering. 16 countries, 535 organisations and nearly 30,000 volunteers who deliver over £3m worth of support just in one day.

BUILDING THE POST-OLYMPIC LEGACY

We launch arc, a programme to create 1,000 jobs in social enterprises in the Olympic boroughs. When the programme closed in 2015 it had smashed its target, having helped over 100 social enterprises and bringing close to 1,800 people into employment. Additionally, it had expanded into West London and created more than 1,000 jobs there too.

HEALTHY HIGH STREETS

High Streets are at the heart of communities and a weathervane of local prosperity. But footfall was falling and empty units increasing. We survey town centre managers on the challenges and make recommendations to business leaders.

WORKWELL LAUNCHED

Our Workwell Model is launched in Brussels and translated into 14 European languages. 2 years later in 2013 we run a benchmark for FTSE 100 companies who scored an average of 21%. The low average score was not unexpected and demonstrated the challenge employers faced in articulating a strategic and integrated approach to responsible people management to drive business performance.

TRANSFORMING BUSINESS, TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES

We publish a special supplement with the Sunday Times.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: MARKS & SPENCER

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: JAGUAR LAND ROVER

LAUNCH OF BAN THE BOX

We call on UK employers to create fairer opportunities for ex-offenders looking for jobs by removing the criminal record disclosure tick box from application forms. In the first 9 months, 16 employers commit to ban the box, and the campaign team is shortlisted for the Charity Times "campaign team of the year" award. Bringing the campaign bang up to date in 2022, 176 employers ban the box representing 1.12m jobs

FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE

We collaborate with M&S and Accenture to launch a ground-breaking report revealing the £100 billion opportunity to be gained by businesses that embrace sustainability and long-term thinking.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: NATIONAL GRID

PROJECT 28-40

We receive 25,000 responses to our Project 2840 survey, being the biggest ever UK survey of women at work. The findings show – unsurprisingly – that women are ambitious and just as confident in their leadership capabilities as men. Women said that being a working mother makes them a good role model for their children, provides balance in their lives and enables them to provide a good life for their family. But they are held back – the ongoing conflict between family and career and the pressure 'by society' to put family first.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: FUJITSU

THE MISSING MILLIONS

After merging with PRIME, one of the Prince's Charities, we release 3 landmark reports, the Missing Millions, which identify one million people over 50 who had been employees pushed out of work involuntarily. The 3 reports highlight the problem and give practical recommendations to business and government of how to address the issue of age at work.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: VEOLIA

WE MERGE WITH OUR SCOTTISH COUSINS

After nearly 35 years as separate charities we merge with Scottish Business in the Community to create one UK-wide charity, bringing together two experienced teams and creating opportunities for greater collaboration and impact.

Jane Wood, CEO SBC and Stephen Howard, CEO BITC and the SBC Ceildh 2016.

DISRUPTERS AND INNOVATORS

Purpose driven brands are the disrupters and innovators creating the economy of the future. Businesses that have a guiding purpose beyond profit alone thrive commercially through doing good. We publish a detailed toolkit to help companies.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY TASKFORCE LAUNCHED

Building on the Fortune Favours the Brave report of 2014 we launch the Circular Economy Taskforce, described by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as "an economy that's restorative and regenerative by design", the ultimate aim being to eliminate waste entirely. Our taskforce builds on the Smart Growth in the Circular Economy strategy.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: ANGLIAN WATER

BLACKPOOL PRIDE OF PLACE

Following a Seeing is Believing visit we launch Pride of Place in Blackpool, a former Healthy High Streets town to mobile the collective strength of business and the voluntary and public sectors. With deprivation levels amongst the worst in the country the case for action is clear. 5 years Blackpool will receive £700 million extra funding with a further £1 billion coming down the tracks to support the creation of 10,000 jobs, increase employment rates for 16-24-year-olds, tackle deprivation and create 3,000 quality new homes.

IMAGES TBC

GOOD WORK FOR ALL

Funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, we launch an 18 month project looking to understand and tackle in-work poverty.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: LLOYDS BANKING GROUP

RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS MAP AND TRACKER LAUNCHED

Launched at the 2017 AGM, 18 months later 64 brave companies took part in the Tracker pilot, puting their heads above the parapet to take the healthcheck on their responsible business practices and to see how they measure up. We publish the results.

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: BOOTS UK

RACE AT WORK CHARTER

One year after launching our Race at Work Charter in 2018, 185 companies are signed up and we present the findings of a diverse mix of employers who have shared their actions against the five Race Charter principles.

National Business Response Network

In March 2020 we launched the National Business Response Network, matchmaking business support to community need – from thousands of meals, laptops and household items to professional training and expertise. 2 years on more than 2 million people have been helped with well over 5,000 connections. Jeremy Pocklington CB, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities cited the NBRN as "the best and most effective response to COVID-19 by the voluntary sector".

BUILDING BACK RESPONSIBLY

Coinciding with the 75th anniversary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, and in a year when COVID-19 rocked the country, we challenge business to harness the innovation brought about by the crisis to tackle the challenges facing society.

MAKING WORK WORK

In our 40th year we're Making Work Work profiling stories from our members about their positive actions for their people, their communities and the planet.