We are delighted to announce that Innovation Visual are finalists in the SME National Business Awards in their ‘Positive Impact’ category. We are particularly thrilled to be finalists in this category as it recognises the work our team invests into improving our impact internally, on the local community and on our environment.
Small and Medium Enterprises are an integral part of any industry and help to encourage innovation in their sector. The SME National Business Awards seek to celebrate, support and raise the profile of hardworking and enterprising SME’s across the UK. This year, there were 18 categories recognising different elements of business effectiveness throughout 2021. Judges for the ‘Positive Impact’ award are looking for companies who have adapted their business for the good of the community and how they plan to continue this in the future.
As a team, we are passionate about wildlife and its preservation, so have been part of the 1% for the Planet organisation since 2014. As part of that commitment, we donate a minimum of 1% of gross annual turnover to certified environmental causes. Our donations to 1% for the Planet have gone towards some excellent causes over the years.
As well as supporting these excellent charities, we're also committed to reducing our environmental impact on a more personal level. We prepare and publish an environmental report biannually to demonstrate our company’s impact in terms of carbon footprint, recycling etc and the steps we have taken to improve each metric. This is real, unfiltered data that we strive to improve every day. We have various initiatives in place to encourage us, a business, to keep our environmental impact to a minimum, such as responsible sourcing of reusable supplies and improving our office recycling system. Despite our efforts, there is still a measurable amount of CO2 which we produce as a business, so each year we offset this production with a charitable donation to COTAP (Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty). COTAP put the money raised through carbon offsetting towards vital projects which tackle climate change and alleviate global poverty.
We are extremely proud of the even gender balance within our team, with 55% of our employees identifying female. This is particularly unusual in the STEM industry, which is traditionally male dominated. We also take pride in the fact that we are genuinely apolitical and smooth structured, everyone is treated equally, with ideas and opinions from all team members being heard and understood equally.
We are a collaborative team, so many of our initiatives are born from team discussions, reflecting a team-wide desire to contribute. We have daily ‘huddles’ over Zoom in which all members of the team join to discuss their day, but also bring any new ideas forward. This is how many of our recent fundraising and environmental initiatives were introduced. The Godalming to Guinea fundraising challenge in particular has had a very positive impact on our team as it has given them a sense of togetherness despite working from home. The challenge has also increased the wellbeing of our team members as it has encouraged regular exercise which is not always easy when working from home.
When expanding our team, we believe it’s important to give opportunities to young people in the wider community and have several strategies in place to achieve this. We have employed two team members through the Government Kickstart scheme and have also provided internships to students from several universities.
The awards ceremony will take place at Wembley Stadium on Friday 3rd of December. We are particularly excited for this ceremony to find out the results as winning this award would reinforce and recognise our ethos of responsibility, protection, support and consideration.
We are a growing and dynamic agency that’s committed to providing exceptional services to our clients, whilst maintaining our positive impact on our wider community. We are always looking out for more digital marketing talent to join our team, so why not get in touch?