Their venture, Poppy Eco Hub, works with organisations aiming to cut their carbon emissions while providing fast, high-performing websites designed to excel in search engine rankings.

Marie, who also runs Poppy Design Studio, has nearly two decades of experience in building WordPress sites. Reflecting on the new venture, she said: “So many people are unaware that websites have a carbon footprint and create carbon dioxide emissions.

“A poorly designed and built webpage can churn out tens of grammes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) with every click. Even if your web page produces just 2g of CO2e per view and receives 10,000 monthly page views, you’re looking at 240kg CO2e per year – that’s about the same as driving from Land’s End to John O’Groats and back in the average car!

“By cutting that down to 0.8g per view, you would see a 60% reduction in emissions. Making these changes now is crucial for a lasting, positive effect on our planet and we are here to help businesses to do this.”

Daniel is well-known in his role as Councillor and Cabinet Member for Local Economy, Culture and Leisure at West Northamptonshire Council. What many people don’t know, is that Daniel has a vast tech background, including working for marketing and data giant Kantar.

Daniel and Marie met at a networking event and soon realised that they had a shared interest in sustainability and innovation. Daniel saw Marie’s website work and was immediately impressed and saw the potential for embarking on a business venture together.

He said: “Poppy Eco Hub is about more than just ‘going green’ - it’s about building high performance, technically sound websites. We utilise ultra efficient, green energy powered data centres, clean coded design, and carefully selected themes to create fast, lean sites. Even the small details matter, like using the latest video codecs to reduce file size without sacrificing quality. This technical precision results in faster load times, a smoother user experience, and increased accessibility. Plus, these optimised sites come with SEO benefits, helping them rank higher in search engines and, ultimately, driving more sales.

“We are hugely excited about the launch of Poppy Eco Hub and already have interest from several companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint through our sustainable, eco-friendly websites. If we built all our websites sustainably, we could eliminate as many emissions as the world’s fourth biggest polluting country or the equivalent emissions of the global aviation industry!

“We shouldn’t be getting poorer to get greener. We can change the world by thinking smarter.”