A Northamptonshire-based web design agency specialising in low carbon, fully accessible websites has been named runner up in the Small Business Growth Awards, organised by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and HSBC UK.

 

Poppy Eco Hub, founded by Marie Baker and Daniel Lister in 2024, was crowned runner up in the Start-Up Business Award category for the East Midlands region from almost 3000 entries across the area.

 

Marie collected the award at a celebration dinner attended exclusively by winners and runner ups at The Carriage Hall in Nottingham, with judges recognising Poppy Eco Hub for ‘building a solid foundation upon which it can thrive’.

 

The agency is the first company in the UK dedicated to combining low carbon web design, WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility compliance and B Corp certification. Every website Poppy Eco Hub builds is independently verified to run 71% cleaner than the global web average and built to meet the accessibility standards now required by UK public sector law and the European Accessibility Act, which came into force in June 2025.

 

Since launching, Poppy Eco Hub has worked with values-led businesses, charities and local authorities across the UK, delivering fast-loading WordPress websites powered by 100% renewable energy hosting and clean, lean code. The agency also achieved B Corp certification within 18 months of launch, scoring 98.1 – well above the 80-point threshold required to qualify.

 

Marie Baker said: “We are absolutely over the moon. We are a small team in Northamptonshire doing something we genuinely believe in, and being recognised for it by the FSB from almost 3,000 other entries is something we are really proud of.

 

“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.

 

“Every website we deliver is low carbon and fully accessible to WCAG 2.2 AA. We are the first agency in the UK to hold B Corp certification while doing this work, and we take that responsibility seriously. This award tells us we are on the right track.”

 

For more information on Poppy Eco Hub, see https://poppyecohub.com.