Sometimes the climate crisis can feel Just. Too. Enormous. It’s easy to feel like small changes are just a drop in a filth-riddled and otherwise plastic ocean. But everyone here at ThreeTenSeven is invested in making small changes to reduce our impact on the planet. After all, we spend hours at work every week, so the biggest opportunity we have for changing things is right in our office.

A greener, more ethical agency

The whole ThreeTenSeven team has helped to shape our plan for being a greener, kinder and more ethical place to be. We’re not perfect, but we’re getting there – and really fast, too. We’re constantly looking for new, greener solutions and ways to improve and we don’t hang around making a change. Here are just some of the changes we’ve made to become a more climate-kind studio:

Choosing sustainable, ethical, cruelty-free products

We’ve made the switch to hand washes and cleaning products that are cruelty-free, natural-based, ethically made and vegan. We also buy in bulk to cut down on transport and shipping. We use towels instead of paper towels, our loo roll is also the greenest you can get, too, being made from 70% recycled bamboo and delivered plastic-free, and our loos feature UK-made, plastic-free tampons and sanitary towels from the very brilliant &Sisters, a woman-powered start-up.

Reducing our waste

We’ve changed our shopping habits to avoid products that use non-recyclable packaging. For example, our weekly fruit delivery is no longer a supermarket fest, featuring those nasty nets, and is instead is an organic affair, delivered in reusable, natural crates. Where we can’t avoid single-use plastic, we’re buying in bulk instead, so the overall quantity of packaging is reduced. We’ve also ditched some products entirely because they didn’t meet our ethical criteria.

Recycling crazy

Our recycling game is ON POINT. We’ve tried to make it easier for everyone by introducing new bins with even better labelling, and have on-site recycling for forgotten bits and pieces like crisp packets, ink cartridges and batteries. Next up is looking into the viability of on-site composting.

Cutting down on energy use

From switching off the lights, to powering down computers at night or boiling just the water we need for that cuppa, we’re trying to reduce wherever we can. We also continue to run the Cycle To Work scheme, making it easier for everyone to get on their bikes instead of taking the car for short journeys, thanks to the tax-efficient scheme. Next up we’re looking at installing an electric car charging point to help our team and clients to go green behind the wheel.

Greening up the office

Whilst we want to make things as green as possible, we also don’t want to make changes for the sake of it, nor throw anything perfectly good away. So as things in the office break or die, we’re phasing them out and replacing them with more eco-friendly alternatives, such as LED lights etc. Speaking of greening it up, we’re also improving the air quality by bringing some new plant life into the place.

Looking for local

We’ve always been great at supporting the local economy but we’re stepping it up, switching to a local milk delivery service and making sure the beer fridge is stocked with only UK beers. We’re more committed than ever to choosing local first. YORKSHIRE YORKSHIRE YORKSHIRE.

Doing good for Christmas

We were looking for ways to cut down on seasonal crap, so started with Christmas. We decided to avoid buying a new tree and instead borrowed one from the Skelton household, so we could do Christmas at ThreeTenSeven guilt-free.

And instead of the usual seasonal waste, we decided not to send Christmas cards this year, instead opting to spend our time and money on hosting our elderly neighbours for Christmas dinner. We cooked it all ourselves (well, mostly. We cheated a bit on the gravy) and naturally recycled all packaging afterwards.

Next up… A vegan agency?

All of this is well and good but now we’re tackling the biggest dilemma of all: the great vegan debate. We’ve had LOTS of healthy debate about this but we’re not sure we can go as far as banning chocolate biscuits YET, so instead we’re looking at a serious reduction. We’re about to start a trial of switching everyone to plant-based milk, except for one emergency bottle of cow’s to get clients (and Liz) through the day. Vegan biscuits are next – YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Beyond this, we’re assessing how we can further reduce our overall energy consumption in the business as well as reviewing the suppliers that we use and making sure they’re in line with our policy. Is there anything else we’re missing? We’d love to hear from you on anything else we can try, as well as great eco-friendly suppliers and producers that we can add to our list. Please email Rachel@threetenseven.co with bright ideas.

Join us

If you’re thinking about reducing your environmental impact at home or at work, we’d love to share what we’ve learned, including the brilliant products we’ve found. Just get in touch.

You can also read more about our journey to becoming a B Corp, which we completed in 2022.