Happy New Year to each and every one of you.

The early days of 2013 offers a perfect opportunity to get you excited about the year ahead here on the 2degrees platform. And excited you should be.

Live events
First up, 2degrees Live returns with its first event of the year towards the end of this month.

On 25th January, landlords, tenants and owner/occupiers will get together in central London to find real solutions to raising the energy performance of their properties. If you’re interested in being part of a live event with a difference (no PowerPoint slides in sight, thank you very much), then visit the website for all the details. It’s going to be a cracker.

And the Live team will not be resting on any laurels as they turn their attention to helping you with your stakeholder engagement plans for April’s event. Watch this space for all the details.

Awards
This is the year of the 2degrees Sustainability Champion Awards – the ‘players’ player’ awards. Confused? Don’t be. You can read my excitable blog post here. And, yes, there’s every reason for you to be excited too.

Free webinars
Our series of interactive online debates, discussions and learning exercises are now open to all, regardless of your level of 2degrees membership, making them free to everybody.

We’ll play host to the best speakers delivering the best case studies as we facilitate the most important conversations taking place anywhere within the sustainable business community.

And don’t forget, 2degrees is the only place to catch WWF’s One Planet Leaders online events which will see business leaders from the likes of Nestle and Kingfisher join the panel for exclusive interactive debates.

Small businesses
This month sees the launch of a brand new Working Group to cater for the growing needs of small business. Managed in partnership with our friends at Planet Positive, we will deliver the best help, support, advice and tools that SMEs need as they grapple with cost savings, marketing and employee engagement.

Topics of focus will include: Sustainability planning; energy efficiency; waste and recycling; travel; food and water; procurement; legislation; and marketing and winning business.

If you think your SME suppliers might benefit from the group, be sure to point them in the right direction.

Case studies and interviews
We will continue to bring you the very best examples of projects and initiatives that are really delivering for companies across the planet.

And keep an eye out for the 2degrees Taking Steps video interview series which will continue throughout 2013, bringing you exclusive insight from the businesses that are truly making it happen. (You can see the first episode here).

Community engagement and editorial
Our team of community managers will be working harder than ever to curate and produce the content that will make your life easier and save you time as you continue on your journey.

And we want you all to get more involved too – sharing best practice, insights, analysis and comment – across the 2degrees platform.

Remember: If you have a challenge, you can bet your life one of your fellow members has experienced something similar. So, we’re here to facilitate those important discussions and to find real solutions.

Feel free to contact one of your community managers – either Stephen, Vanessa or Lucinda – if you want any help getting involved.

Or if you want to contribute any editorial content, get in touch with myself (tomidle@2degreesnetwork.com).

Elsewhere…
There will be new columns, regular features, research reports, the best news and analysis – plus lots of fun stuff too.

And we promise to continue evolving the 2degrees site, with new products, services, functionality and design, to make your experience even better.

Did you know that there are now almost 26,000 of you splendid 2degrees members out there, so thank you for being a part of the greatest sustainable business community on the planet.

Let’s make 2013 the best year ever.