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As we serve more and more of you lovely lot every day, week and year, our impact on the planet grows.

At Seven Dials Market, we’ve always taken sustainability seriously. But it’s time to take it up a notch. To challenge ourselves. To seek creative (and planet-friendly) options in everything we do. Why? Because there is no Planet B. And because we think you, our very hungry guests, give a sh*t. Just as much as we do. 

So, here goes. 

Here are seven steps we’re taking to try and reduce our impact on the planet:

FAR FROM BOG STANDARD

We're saving water

We’ve recently installed flow regulator taps on 92 of the taps on-site, reducing the volume by 5ltr per minute (down from 12ltr to 7ltr). We’ve also reduced our toilet flushes, which with over 2.4 million guests per year, is a fair bit of flush water saved (we estimate around 3.5 million litres in total!)… far from bog standard.

SMALL BUT MIGHTY

We're educating the little 'uns

We already print our Kid’s Menus on recycled paper. This month, we thought about getting rid of them entirely (save the trees), but instead decided to use them as a tool to teach little foodies about making sustainable food choices, and how to recycle and reduce their waste. We’re doing our bit on that part too – and have said goodbye to those cute but oh-so-wasteful little boxes of crayons! 

WASTE NOT WANT NOT

We're turning food into biofuel

With a lot of light bulbs to power, ovens to fire up and tills to operate, we use a pretty large amount of energy. But you can tuck into your chicken wings safe in the knowledge that they were fried using power from renewable energy sources! And did you know, all our food waste goes into the Rothenburg, a giant anaerobic digester that turns food into biofuel, which in turn generates electricity. There are only five of these in the country, and we’re pretty chuffed to be home to one of them!

SIT AND SIP

We're serving chai in china

Chai Guys have done away with the disposable cups. We’ve introduced good old-fashioned china cups, so you can take a seat and sip on your chai in style. If you’re in a rush, no worries, their takeaway cups are recyclable. 

B.Y.O.(W.)B.

We're offering free filtered tap water

We’ve increased the number of drinking water stations around Seven Dials Market to quench your thirst after all those salty truffle fries. You won’t find a plastic bottle here! If you want to buy water from the bar, you’ll only find LIFE Water in cans – who donate all profits to drop4drop, and have provided clean drinking water to nearly 2 million people around the world. 

THAT’S THE SPIRIT

We're using less glass bottles

Whilst they might be better for the planet than plastic ones, glass bottles still have a pretty mega carbon footprint (500g of carbon per 500ml bottle) and we get through a lot on our bars. We’re trialling spirits being delivered in jerry cans (thanks East London Liquor Co. for helping us with this one!) saving approx 250 glass bottles every month.

GIVING A F*RK

We've banned single use cutlery in Banana Warehouse

We’ve worked hard since day one to minimise the take away and throw away packaging here at SDM. And that includes serving up your meals on shiny silver metal trays, complete with proper, metal cutlery. Why? Because we serve up more than 170,000 dishes per month. That’s over 200k pieces of cutlery that are going through the dishwasher instead of into landfill. 



These might all seem like tiny little changes, but with over 2.4 millions visitors per year, together we can make a pretty big positive impact. 

There’s a bonus one too. KERB, who founded Seven Dials Market, have committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. And we mean truly, 100% honestly, carbon neutral. We’ve introduced a ‘KERB and the Planet’ committee internally, which our traders will be getting involved in too, to help us find the best ways to get there. 

What sustainable initiatives would you like to see here at Seven Dials Market? What would keep you caring, and coming back for more? Send us your suggestions to lara@sevendialsmarket.com, and if we use ‘em, we’ll send you a tasty little thank you. 

P.S. We ain’t perfect. We’re just a bunch of food-obsessed humans who care about this planet and want to challenge ourselves (and our business) to do better. Some of these ideas might not work. They might completely f*ck up. They might cost us a sh*t tonne of money (sorry boss). But we’re giving it a go.

Baby steps, right?