Member Article

We are Vista wins at the 20th annual Responsible Business Awards

*Mark Calvert, Chief Executive of Adler & Allan also named The Prince’s Ambassador in Yorkshire & Humber at highly respected awards *

Leeds based We are Vista is celebrating today after being crowned a winner at one of the most prestigious corporate awards programmes, The Responsible Business Awards, run by the charity Business in the Community (BITC).

The creative communications agency was presented with the coveted SME Responsible Business of the Year award, having integrated a range of environmental goals into the business, and given staff ‘headspace’ to think more creatively about how to stay on top of the company’s negative impacts.

The small creative communications agency’s five year sustainability plan has seen it invest over £1 million into local communities, cut carbon footprint by 44%, help clients save £1.9 million by delivering campaigns and events sustainably, as well as giving give employees the headspace to contribute £60,000 worth of time a year into communities.

Today’s news coincides with the announcement that Mark Calvert, Chief Executive of Adler & Allan, has been appointed by HRH the Prince of Wales as The Prince’s Ambassador in Yorkshire & Humber.

Each year, HRH personally appoints an inspirational business figure in each of the UK’s regions to represent the responsible business movement and lead other businesses to take action to address key issues. Ambassadors are chosen for their personal impact and for demonstrating leadership within their own business.

In a recorded video, played to guests at the Awards Gala at the Royal Albert Hall in London last night, HRH the Prince of Wales said: “Over the years my Ambassadors have shown that with the right leadership, creativity and persuasive determination, people can work together to solve problems, to meet challenges and to create constructive change.

“There is certainly no shortage of challenges needing their talents and vision. It still remains the case that in many communities opportunities and resources are not accessible to all. In such a situation business has a unique and essential role to play in creating resilient communities where talent can be discovered, incubated and developed.”

Mark plays an active role in disaster response within the region and across the country. As a founding partner and member of the Business Emergency Resilience Group, he assists local communities with flood grant applications and resilence preparation.

Mark’s vision for Adlar and Allan Group is to create the UK’s leading disaster response company, able to mobilise immediately anywhere in the country. Mark’s work in disaster response was most recently recognised by the UK Government Floods Minister as instrumental in helping flood affected communities recover following the 2015/16 floods in Cumbria.

On his appointment, Mark said: “This appointment is a great honour personally and for Adler & Allan and a great opportunity to help influence the responsible business agenda and encourage more businesses to work together to build a fairer society and a more sustainable future. Yorkshire and the Humber is an area regularly affected by extreme weather.

“So as a Prince’s Ambassador, I plan to particularly focus on promoting resilience – and bringing businesses, emergency services, local communities and local authorities together to work more collaboratively to prepare, respond and recover from disasters such as flooding. Adler & Allan has a long history of helping businesses to improve their sustainability and responsibility to the environment – experience which provides me with the foundation to fulfil this role.”

The headline sponsors of the 2017 Responsible Business Awards are Aviva, Barclays, Experian, Fujitsu, Hogan Lovells, UBS, Unilever, The Unipart Group For more information and a full list of all winners, visit www.bitc.org.uk/awards and follow @BITC on Twitter #BITCawards.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Business in the Community .