Over the past few months more than 4,000 sustainability professionals around the world have been voting on what achievements they believe are the 'best of the best' from the sustainability sector in the annual 2degrees Champions Awards.

As a global leader in delivering sustainable value to our clients, our work with RB developing a revolutionary sustainable innovation calculator was short listed for the "Solution of the Year" award. Unlike other tools that become shelf ware, our unique approach led to more than half of their global R&D team using the tool within months to quickly identify how they could make their product portfolio more sustainable in line with RB's betteRBusiness plan. But having users on a tool is just part of the story... after all, one can get users simply by saying everyone must be on the same platform.

Once the news got out that RB was up for an award for the new tool and that the winner would be decided through a peer voting process something magical happened: RB's global R&D team stepped forward and began individually voting for the new system to be the winner. This feat wasn't as simple as just answering a short survey question, each voter needed to register for a new account and then vote. These obstacles didn't deter the more than 250 professionals from taking the time to not just shout about how pleased they were with their achievements, but also about how proud they were to work for a company that recognised the business value of sustainability.

By any measure, this is a fantastic achievement and shows just how well designed tools can foster a more collaborative, positive and enthusiastic company culture without sacrificing performance or sustainability. The judges were so impressed with this achievement that they created a special award just for RB: Best Internal Engagement Activity. Through a single project we were able to work alongside RB's inspiring sustainability team to excite the company and together our work has been acknowledged by our peers around the world.