SnapCab, a leader in developing workspace privacy solutions that are flexible, high quality, and safe to use, has been recognized by Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards for designing and developing isolation and medical testing pods to help keep people safe during the pandemic. SnapCab, established in Warrington, Pennsylvania, has a new start-up factory in Kingston, Ontario, specializing in workspace products.

The company received an honorable mention in the North American category – alongside Google, CannonDesign, Amazon, NBC News and more – for its response to the new needs of the workforce. When the pandemic hit, SnapCab founder and CEO Glenn Bostock realized that the meeting room pods the company designed and manufactured would no longer be of interest—at least for now.

“We quickly realized we had the design and manufacturing capabilities to develop medical testing pods for use by healthcare workers,” Bostock said. “We started connecting with local medical experts for advice and guidance because we had no background in the medical field, and we knew we wanted to help.”

SnapCab designed and developed several prototypes for medical testing pods and is now working with CannonDesign to bring a final product to market.

SnapCab’s pivot did not end there. With much of the office-bound workforce working from home, SnapCab took its Meet 4 and Meet 6 collaboration-style pod products and redesigned them into individual office pods called the Work and Work+. In addition, the team developed a Meet 2 home office pod, as well as the Consult—a two-person pod designed with a glass partition to provide a safe place for face-to-face interactions. The Consult has been coined the “God Pod” by the Globe and Mail, CTV News and other national media for its use in a church in Ottawa.

“We saw the need for people to return to the office, and we realized that our products were so flexible that we could help reinvent the office of the future by simply reworking our current pod designs into something more,” Bostock said.

Soon, SnapCab developed a “Kit of Parts” that included several pod designs with customizable frames, panels, finishes, colors, furniture, accessories and more. In addition, all SnapCab pods can connect to the SnapCab Connects hinging wall system that can be used to create small group work areas—a signature product to the pod market.

“Something we’ve learned is that people are not going to go back to work the same way that they did before the pandemic,” Bostock said. “There’s a need now for less office space, but space that is much more flexible where all offices and walls are mobile. That’s why we have designed this ‘Kit of Parts’ – to give people the tools they need to return to work.”

All in all, Bostock’s focus before the pandemic and throughout this pivot has been to be useful to customers, colleagues and the community.

“One thing we’ve learned from this is to start with trying to figure out how you can be useful and do something to help,” Bostock said. “The energy around that creates people who want to work with you and partners who want to help you. Look for the upside and build on that.”

Now in its fifth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 33 winners, more than 400 finalists, and more than 800 honorable mentions—with Health and Wellness, AI & Data among the most popular categories. The 2021 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Brazil to Denmark to Vietnam.

The winners of Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced last week honoring the businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to pursuing innovation when it comes to solving health and climate crises, social injustice, or economic inequality.

Showcasing some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and companies tackling exigent global challenges, Fast Company’s Summer 2021 issue hits newsstands today.

“There is no question our society and planet are facing deeply troubling times. So, it’s important to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, impact, design, scalability, and passion to solve these problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have discovered some of the most groundbreaking projects that have launched since the start of 2020.”

About SnapCab: Since 1983, SnapCab has been a leader in developing workspace privacy solutions and elevator cab interiors that are flexible, high quality and safe to use in a variety of environments. SnapCab Workspace offers a flexible “Kit of parts” that is designed with a customizable frame, panels, finishes, colors, furniture, accessories and more. These isolated pods for the open are moveable, simple to clean, and can be combined with the SnapCab Connects walls to transform any workplace.

About the World Changing Ideas Awards: World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With the goals of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.