We’re delighted to share some exciting news. Poppy Eco Hub has been named runner up in the Start Up Business Award for the East Midlands at the 2026 Small Business Growth Awards.
The awards, organised by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and HSBC UK, celebrate small businesses across the UK that are making an impact and showing strong potential for growth.
With almost 3,000 entries across the region, being recognised as a finalist was already a huge achievement for our small team. To come away as runner up makes it even more special.
Our founder, Marie Baker, collected the award at the East Midlands ceremony at The Carriage Hall in Nottingham, alongside businesses from across the region.
The judges praised Poppy Eco Hub for “building a solid foundation upon which it can thrive”, which is particularly meaningful to us as a business that only launched in 2024.
Doing things differently
Poppy Eco Hub was created with a simple idea at its heart. Websites should work for everyone, while having as little impact on the environment as possible.
We are proud to be the first agency in the UK to offer websites that are both sustainable and designed to meet WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards.
It is something that sets us apart, but more importantly, it is the reason we started the business in the first place.
Websites have become increasingly resource intensive, while millions of people still face barriers when using the internet. We believe those two issues should be tackled together, rather than treated as separate problems.
As Marie explains:
“We started Poppy Eco Hub because we could see two problems that nobody was tackling together. Websites were getting heavier, slower and more carbon intensive at exactly the same time that accessibility legislation was tightening and one in four people in the UK were still being quietly shut out of digital spaces.
“That felt wrong. So, we built an agency to fix both at once, and that is exactly what we do every single day.”
Since launching, we have worked with charities, local authorities and private sector organisations across the UK, creating WordPress websites that are designed to reduce environmental impact and provide a more accessible experience for everyone.
Our websites are hosted using renewable energy sources and designed to meet WCAG 2.2 AA, helping organisations make their websites more inclusive while also considering their environmental impact.
Building a business with purpose
The award is another milestone in what has been a very busy couple of years for Poppy Eco Hub.
Just 18 months after launching, we achieved B Corp certification with a score of 98.1, well above the threshold required for certification.
For us, these achievements are about more than having something to put on our website. They are recognition that there is a real need for a different approach to web design and that the work we are doing matters.
“We are absolutely over the moon,” said Marie. “We are a small team in Northamptonshire doing something we genuinely believe in, and being recognised by the FSB from almost 3,000 other entries is something we are really proud of.”
She added:
“Every website we deliver is sustainable and designed to meet WCAG 2.2 AA. We take that responsibility seriously, and this award tells us we are on the right track.”
We are incredibly proud to have been recognised alongside so many brilliant businesses across the East Midlands.
Most of all, we are grateful to the clients, partners and supporters who have helped us get here. Poppy Eco Hub was built because we believed websites could be better for people and better for the planet. It’s wonderful to see that idea being recognised.
Here’s to what comes next. 🌱
