The Road to Sustainability

 

Six steps you can implement in your workplace TODAY

People think of an office move as a big deal. But at DTV it happens more than once a day. Each time the lock gates open on the canal, our four office boats move slightly. It’s all part of daily life for those of our team who aren’t land-based.

Being on the water is part of what keeps us attuned to the environment and nature. We have the joy of seeing swans and new broods of cygnets each year. But then there’s the less joyful aspects of fishing rubbish from the canal in order to sustain their home and our working habitat.

Angie from DTV London fishing out rubbish from the canal.

Angie from DTV London fishing out rubbish from the canal.

But it’s not just about our immediate environment. Today it’s impossible to ignore the fact that every workplace creates an impact on the world, for good or bad.

In the UK, commercial waste was a whopping 37.9 million tonnes according to the Department of the Environment (2017).

The First Steps to Sustainability

As we sat in the office every day, working for some amazing environment-changing causes like WWF, Greenpeace and Whale and Dolphin Conservation, we realised that we could be more systematic and take small but impactful steps to reduce DTV’s waste.

Here’s what we’ve done so far, which we believe any caring workplace could do immediately…

  1. A weekly food shop for all the team No more individual sandwich boxes or single-use bags for us. Plus a better nourished workforce!

Buying produce from great companies like Oddbox — where all the fruit and veg might not be perfect but is perfectly edible and tasty!

Buying produce from great companies like Oddbox — where all the fruit and veg might not be perfect but is perfectly edible and tasty!

2. Rethinking Deliveries We are sending and receiving items only when absolutely necessary and taking less environmentally impactful options when we do

3. Better Bottles We have made sure there are enough re-usable cups and bottles for all the team and any visitors we have — no more plastic bottle waste

4. Less Packaging We are continually buying products with less packaging overall and a greater proportion of more packaging that can be recycled

5. Better Waste Management collectively we all take the time to ensure the waste that can be recycled is sorted properly. We no longer have general waste bins in the workplace — rubbish and recycling must be disposed of properly

6. Planning Catering for off-site Activities and Film shoots are part of our daily work so it’s important to reduce waste, especially visible in areas such as catering. We now factor this in to the planning process and book food alongside the crew and kit

The Next Part of the Journey

We’re also looking at how best to use our purchasing power. We want to buy better. Reduce waste. Support small producers. We want to make a measurable impact, so we’re undertaking a waste audit — as unglamorous as it sounds! That’s will be the yardstick by which we measure the rate and degree of change.

Better waste management.

Better waste management.

It’s really early days, but in terms of actions we are:

· Liaising with the local council to improve recycling

· Eradicating confusion in our team about what can and can’t be recycled!

· Changing how we shop: especially making sure we buy fruit and veg seasonably

· We’re getting on top of how we improve the rest of our sourcing and delivery.

· We’re building a team of champions across the business to encourage and celebrate progress

The next steps will include identifying how we can make this a truly strategic priority, and everyone at DTV is behind this. There are so many issues to look at here, from where we source our energy, to the fact that we are a truly international business with offices around the world and often the only way to reach them is to fly. We don’t have all the answers, but we’ve started the journey.

We’ll be posting progress updates via our social channels, and we’d love your feedback and to hear how you are tackling these issues in your organisation.

 

Bios

Poppy Forbes, Assistant Producer at DTV London and works across a variety of clients and countries — from UNHCR — UK, Canada, Brazil, Netherlands, Sweden, to Battersea Dogs home in London and many more.

Valeria Mezzanu, Campaign Manager at DTV London. She works across all our clients’ DRTV campaigns, optimising the call centre performance to help improve ROI.

 
Debora Montesoro