On Friday, March 14th, 2025, Tom, Hein, Rob, Craig and Sarah gathered for a memorable day of tree planting with Moor Trees in picturesque Dartmoor, specifically in the village of Bridestowe. Not only did we get the chance to bond and contribute to the environment, but we also had the perfect weather for a day outdoors – blue skies, sunshine, and no rain clouds in sight!

Meeting Our Guide: James and His Trusty Pup

When we arrived, we were welcomed by James, our guide for the day, who shared fascinating insights about the project. Alongside him was his adorable 4-month-old puppy, Frank, who was an instant hit with everyone and joined in at any opportunity. James explained that the field we were working in would one day transform into a thriving natural woodland in the next 15-20 years—a beautiful, long-term vision that made our efforts that much more meaningful.

The Tree Planting Process

James gave us a brief demonstration of the tree planting process, which was both simple and fulfilling:

1. Digging the Hole: First, we dug a hole the width and depth of a spade, carefully removing the top layer of turf. The soil needed to be broken up so that it would fill the hole around the roots of the young tree, giving it the best chance to grow.
2. Planting the Tree: We placed the young tree into the hole, making sure the roots were well-positioned. Afterward, we packed the soil back around the tree, stamping it down firmly to eliminate any air pockets.
3. Protecting the Tree: To keep wildlife away from the young tree, we attached a cane to each tree and wrapped it with a protective bio wrap.
4. Mulching for Growth: The final step was placing a mulch mat around the base of each tree to help retain moisture and protect the roots. We secured the mat with bamboo pegs to ensure it stayed in place.

In total, we planted 150 native trees of varying species, including Oak, Hawthorn, Hornbeam, Silver Birch, and Beech—species that are native to the Dartmoor area and will one day thrive in this new woodland.

Reflecting on the Day

The experience was not just about planting trees—it was a chance for us to connect with nature, contribute to a sustainable future, and strengthen our bonds as a team. As we left Dartmoor that afternoon, we knew the trees we planted would grow alongside our team spirit, standing tall in the years to come.

This day of team building with Moor Trees was a reminder of how small actions can lead to big changes, and we’re proud to have been a part of it.

Our founding principle has always been to do good work for nice people. This ethos has guided us through every major project, partnership, and decision we’ve ever made. In May 2024, we formalised this commitment by becoming a Certified B Corporation (B Corp). The process wasn’t easy, but the journey was enlightening, challenging, and ultimately transformative. For B Corp Month, we’d like to share our experiences and the lessons we learned along the way.

Aligning values with certification

We’re lucky in that we started from the position of having clearly defined beliefs and values, and if you’re not currently in the same boat, it’s recommended to spend some time setting out what it is your company stands for, and how that aligns with your desire to become a B Corp. Our end goal has always been to create positive impacts for our clients, community, and the environment, and pursuing B Corp certification seemed like a natural extension of those aims, offering a structured framework to measure and enhance our social, employer and environmental performance.

Hire a consultant who understands the certification process

The B Corp certification process is renowned for its rigor and comprehensiveness, as it evaluates a company’s entire social and environmental performance, from supply chain practices to employee benefits. It’s also a set of standards designed in the US in order to be applied to US-based companies, which gives it a perspective that doesn’t seamlessly dovetail with the practices of UK-based companies. To navigate this complex landscape, we enlisted the help of a consultant experienced in B Corp standards. Our consultant’s expertise was invaluable in interpreting these nuances and ensuring we met the required points score.

You’re probably underestimating the time commitment

One of the most significant lessons we learned was the sheer amount of time and resources that are required to reach B Corp status. The certification process is not a quick ticklist exercise, and tasks such as completing the B Impact Assessment, gathering documentation, and implementing necessary changes demand substantial effort. What we initially estimated as a few months extended much longer, so our advice to others is to take your initial time estimate and then triple it. This allows for a more realistic planning and resource allocation, with some breathing room during the evidence-gathering phase.

Your governance and processes will get stronger

An unexpected but profoundly positive outcome of the B Corp process was the introspection it prompted regarding our governance, policies, and processes. We’d always believed we had a robust structure, but the assessment revealed areas for improvement we hadn’t previously considered. Addressing these gaps has resulted in a tighter, better-governed operation.

Taking an objective look in the mirror is rarely a comfortable thing to do, but the process compelled us to confront all aspects of our business critically, leading to enhanced accountability and transparency.

B Corp status should be more than just a badge

It’s essential to understand that B Corp certification is not merely a marketing tool, and going through the process just to enhance your marketing is more likely than ever to lead to the wrong kind of publicity for your company now that there is increased attention on which companies are attaining the certification. Authenticity is key. The true value lies in the genuine commitment to continuous improvement and positive impact which comes with becoming a B Corp. For us, the certification serves as a reminder of our responsibilities and the standards we strive to uphold.

How becoming a B Corp has helped us

Embarking on the journey to B Corp certification has been transformative for us. It reinforced our core values, challenged us to improve, and provided a framework for sustainable and responsible growth. For businesses considering this path, we encourage you to embrace the process wholeheartedly. It’s a demanding journey, but the rewards—in terms of internal growth, external credibility, and societal impact—are immeasurable.

For more information on B Corp certification and its benefits, visit the B Lab UK website.

Can you see it? No, really? Have you pressed Ctrl+F5?

Here at Webselect, we thrive on being as innovative as possible, aiming to improve anything affecting us and our clients. Recently, we have had a lot of UX/UI design changes, and noticed a common trend. When changes have been made, sometimes our client’s could not see the change, which is quite a frustrating issue in itself, especially since we could see the change was working across all devices and browsers as part of our pre-release QA. We got together last week and brainstormed the issue; how can we make the browser display the latest CSS and images without the user having to clear their cache or affecting page weight and performance?

We were intentionally caching images and CSS files to save the page loading times and improve overall performance and optimisation. When we were making changes in the past we were reliant on the cache being cleared and the page redraws when it is first loaded. This was sometimes delayed for our clients and their customers so the impact of front end change was not being seen as quickly as we would all like.

Hashing and Caching

To combat this without affecting performance and quality, we turned to the wonderful world of hashing. Yes hashing – the headache inducing, wonderful world that is hashing. Hashing is the process of transforming any given key or a string of characters into another value. This is usually represented by a shorter, fixed-length value or key that makes it easier to find or employ the original string.

By hashing images and CSS files, we can ensure the “style.css” is only called when it is required instead of every style.css all being called as the file “might” be the one that is needed. By creating a hash whenever we make an update and then deleting the old file, it allows us to keep a log of when an update has been made and we can utilise our version control a lot more efficiently. But more importantly it acts similar to caching, as hashing is based on the name of the file, so if that doesn’t change in the hashing map then the browser will not have to download a newer version. Genius.

The Nerd Bit 🙂

We’re using the hashing algorithm, which can be used for encryption, but we’re using it in another way, to hash the contents of the file, essentially giving us a digital fingerprint. In our build pipeline we’re now generating hashes for static assets (css, images) and generating a manifest, which maps the original file names to their hashed versions. If an asset changes, its hash will change which in turn will update the manifest. We have written our own helper for including assets on pages. Instead of the traditional <img src=”foo.jpg”> we would now write <img src=”@Helpers.Image(“foo.jpg”)”>. This will first check that the manifest is up to date (again using hashing) and then map “foo.jpg” to its hashed counterpart. This would result in something like this: “foo-1adfec9bb23e9dea9f02.jpg”. This will get cached as normal by the browser, but if the file is changed then so will its hash, and the browser will be forced to download the new version. This is called ‘cache busting’.

Why Did We Bother?

We have had a real kick out of solving this problem, as a software engineering team, being presented with technical problems to overcome is what we live for, it just makes us happy. But there are some real world benefits to this and they all matter.

• The client is reassured what we have done is ‘there’ – no more “have you cleared your cache” conversations.
• The customer to the website sees the changes as intended, when intended – all the customers get the same experience.
• The client gets to realise the benefits of the changes immediately when deployed.
• Our sites are predominantly e-commerce sites. Products, new lines, out of stock items and sales are updated constantly from the CMS. The client wants this to be available and correct instantly and this is the key benefit. The user experience is consistent and as intended at the moment of publication.

Webselect builds consistently solid, robust e-commerce solutions. We know e-commerce, and support our clients to grow their business online. Our range of products and services can fit any budget and most importantly we can build it around you and your business. Have a niche integration, no problem. If you want to talk to us, reach out, we are a friendly bunch.

You can chat to us by calling 0208 066 1000

[email protected].

We are delighted to have been announced as winner in the category ‘Employer of The Year’ at the South West Business & Community Awards!

There are so many incredible businesses in the South West and it was an honour to be recognised for the work we are doing to look after our team, colleagues and working family. From the gender balance of our board to the wellbeing support offered to all employees, we try to do things the right way. Our business success is down to the people who work for us and with us and this award is for the whole team at Webselect who work with respect, integrity, passion and humanity.

The 2022 Employer of The Year award, recognises businesses who create outstanding workplaces for their teams and are committed to supporting and motivating their teams.

This award recognises the environment and culture we have collectively built to support the fantastic teams at Webselect and Nice Group (SW) Ltd and the brilliant work they do for our clients, including amazing brands like DCUK – The Original Wooden Duck Company, Kernowcraft Rocks and Gems Ltd, Kettlewell Colours, Exeter Chiefs, So Simply Robell, Ickle Bubba, Celtic & Co., Frugi, Weird Fish Clothing, HS Walsh & Sons, The Cheese Shed, Avon Bulbs and many more!

This year we pushed ourselves to put our name forward for some awards, officially so we could discover which areas we needed to improve on, but also because everyone likes winning awards.

Through this process we entered an award to see how our team fared when in competition with others, not expecting too much. We were pleasantly surprised by the results of getting a Silver award for the ‘Best eCommerce Team 2022’!

The biggest bonus with winning this award is that we’re now allowed to call ourselves an “Award Winning eCommerce Team”.

Team engagement and interaction plays a big part of our ethos of Respect, Inspiration and Integrity.

We are committed to our team, and building a close community with each other, so it’s really lovely that this has been recognised externally too.