Winds of change

From offspring to renewable energy, law firms face a welter of challenges to become carbon neutral. Grania Langdon-Down examines what solicitors are doing for the environment


When it comes to law firms taking steps to reduce their carbon footprints, they must fight against doing as little as possible, says DLA Piper’s head of corporate responsibility Elaine Radford.



‘Two years ago, none of us knew much about this. But since then many firms have made significant achievements in cutting their carbon emissions,’ she says. ‘Clearly, there are things we can do better and ways we can improve, but apathy isn’t an option.’



Inspired by the Prince of Wales’s May Day Summit last year, the firm joined forces with the Law Society, charity Business in the Community, the Environmental Law Foundation and 17 other law firms to establish the Legal Sector Alliance. The other firms involved range from magic circle firms, including Freshfields and Linklaters, to major regional firms, including Bond Pearce and Dickinson Dees, all the way to Cardiff legal aid practice Morgans and niche employment practice Nicholas Moore with just three solicitors.



The aim of the alliance is to lead the profession in the fight against climate change by encouraging firms not just to put their own houses in order but to use their influence over clients, suppliers and government to spread the message that time is running out.



The alliance will be taking its message out to the regions next month, with a series of events across England and Wales, which it hopes will draw in more firms and identify any barriers they have experienced in implementing sustainable measures – such as time, resources, upfront costs or regulatory issues.



While law firms may not be major polluters on the scale of manufacturers, they employ thousands of people in the UK, travel widely and consume vast quantities of paper.



Radford says they wanted to develop a plan that was ‘both morally and commercially attractive’ to the profession. ‘We felt there must be something we could do that would harness the enthusiasm that was clearly growing within the profession to combat climate change. Aside from the very competitive ‘hat’ that all law firms wear, there are aspects of corporate social responsibility where they are happy to collaborate and share best practice. Together we can potentially achieve so much more than we can individually.’



The LSA’s core remit is to draw up profession-wide principles on combating climate change, which will recommend a standard way of measuring a law firm’s carbon footprint as a first step towards working out how emissions can be cut. The aim is to create practical principles grounded in best practice that can be adopted by firms of all sizes and specialisms and in all locations.



Ever competitive, firms are keen to show off their green credentials. But they have become reluctant to give specific figures in case the different ways of calculating a firm’s carbon footprint – some include employees’ commute to work while others don’t, for example – result in their environmental achievements being judged unfairly against a rival’s efforts.



Paul Finch is head of planning at north-east firm Dickinson Dees. He is leading the firm’s team aiming for the benchmark standard for environmental management – ISO 14001. Finch says they are committed to reducing emissions but they are waiting for a profession-wide standard before calculating their carbon footprint, so people can compare like for like and judge how firms are performing. ‘There is a mixture of altruistic and selfish reasons for standardising measures,’ he says.



So what are law firms doing? What are the tough choices facing them? How important is it to be seen to be green, and how can firms ensure the issue permeates their cultures and is not just a ‘greenwash’ of easily achievable targets?



Kate Walmsley, corporate responsibility co-ordinator for the Law Society, says: ‘The alliance grew out of a recognition that taking action on environmental issues is in everyone’s interests but it will have more impact through collaboration rather than individually.



‘It absolutely can’t be a greenwash. This is why it is so important that we come up with practical principles, illustrated by case studies, showing what works and what doesn’t. They have to be grounded in best practice and apply to any law firm no matter its size, specialism or location if they are going to be any use.



‘We also need an agreed approach on carbon footprinting to help firms get started. The other advantage is it will make comparability and benchmarking within the sector clearer and help clients understand which practices are environmentally advanced.’



According to the World Resources Institute, the average UK citizen individually accounts for 9.5 tonnes of carbon a year, with six of those tonnes attributable to household emissions. Firms should be aiming to get their share of that down to two or three at most.



The direct carbon footprint of the Law Society in 2006 was 3.05 tonnes per member of staff, based on the direct consumption of energy and direct business travel. The Society has set reduction goals aimed at achieving carbon neutrality by 2011. The Gazette will soon be moving to fully recycled paper to support its environmental objectives.





Carbon footprint

As a global law firm with 30 offices in 23 countries, Linklaters says measuring its carbon footprint seemed like a ‘daunting task’. But having overcome that challenge, it has now set a target of reducing its carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 from a 2006/07 baseline.



DLA Piper achieved global certification to ISO 14001 in December 2007, a major objective of the firm’s global sustainability initiative, launched in January 2006. Radford says it has identified ‘purchased energy and air travel’ as the main source of its carbon emissions and set achievable targets for this year while it ‘beds down’ its emissions measurement systems.



These targets include a 1% reduction in electricity consumption, with 75% of the electricity obtained from renewable sources where possible, a 2% reduction in air travel with the rest off-set, and a 2% reduction in waste. Radford says the firm plans to encourage responsible environmental management down its supply chain, by asking existing contractors to consider using environmentally friendly biodegradable products. ‘And when we negotiate new contracts, we will give preference to those companies which use biodegradable products.’ 



An analysis of measures introduced in their Glasgow office showed a 15% reduction in energy use, which has prompted the firm to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of installing movement-sensing lighting systems in all its offices during this year.



Using data from the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management, Freshfields also singled out air travel and electricity – responsible for 33% and 31% of its emissions respectively – as the key areas where it needs to make the most significant carbon reductions. It has been working to reduce emissions by 10% by May.



Rani Virdee, client director for the legal sector with the CarbonNeutral Company, which specialises in carbon management, says there has been a surge of interest among law firms since the 2006 Stern Report on the economic impact of climate change. She is talking to most of the top 30 practices, as well as to firms of ten partners or more up and down the country.



CarbonNeutral helps to quantify a firm’s carbon emissions, looking at the energy use in its buildings, business and commuter travel, waste management and third-party deliveries. The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management acts as its science partner, conducting the carbon footprint assessment.



‘Once we have the findings,’ Virdee explains, ‘we target reductions in two ways – internally, through practical approaches which are low or no cost, such as turning off lights and computers, double-sided printing and recycling; and externally by purchasing carbon credits in another part of the world. Internal reductions are never going to be enough. It makes sense therefore to fund clean technology in developing countries, for instance, which will help achieve targets globally.’



She says CarbonNeutral has a portfolio of offsetting projects that meet the relevant standards and cost from £7 per tonne of carbon up to £12-£14 per tonne. As she points out, opportunities for reducing carbon emissions can be reduced, for example, by the state of a firm’s building. ‘Moving to an eco-friendly building may be the ideal answer but in the short term you do what you can and purchase the rest externally.’



This two-pronged approach has helped firms such as Freshfields and Simmons & Simmons achieve carbon neutrality, she says.





Offsetting

Offsetting is a controversial issue, with critics arguing it encourages firms to trade away their emissions rather than take steps to reduce them. Freshfields admits that one of its challenges has been countering perceptions that ‘offsetting and renewable energy purchases are less worthy ways to meet your obligations’.



Darryl Moles, Allen & Overy’s health, safety and environmental manager, says that, after conducting a global environmental audit late last year, ‘we now understand our impact on the environment much better and can work towards actually reducing it, rather than just offsetting it’.



For Radford, offsetting has yet to prove its benefit. ‘Our analogy is we would go to the gym as opposed to getting liposuction.’ DLA only offsets unavoidable business air travel by investing in projects with strong societal benefits, for instance in China and Nicaragua.



Certainly the emissions created by business travel constitute one key area which firms acknowledge they ‘haven’t yet cracked’, says Richard Brophy, corporate responsibility manager for City firm Herbert Smith.



‘We have done some offsetting but the concern is it will encourage people to fly more,’ he says. ‘But if you fund a project which has a meaningful impact on the community you are supporting, you are acknowledging your impact and seeking to do something which has a moral value to balance it out.’



In carbon terms, business travel accounts for 18% of Herbert Smith’s emissions, while employees’ commuting habits contribute a further 7%. ‘I genuinely don’t know how we can overcome that issue,’ says Brophy. ‘We are introducing more video-conferencing and combining trips, but it is a question of whether you can be successful and competitive without partners meeting and building relationships with clients overseas.’



So, has becoming green involved hard decisions? Brophy says: ‘We haven’t got to the tough choices yet. The choices we have made so far have been low-hanging fruit, things that are doable and don’t cost a huge amount.’



Radford agrees. ‘For us, changing the way we work to reduce our carbon emissions is a commercial and moral imperative but we haven’t yet had to take tough choices.’



Richard Guyatt, planning partner and member of Bond Pearce’s green team, says an example of ‘pain’ suffered in pursuing their green commitment would be their heavy investment in video-conferencing equipment. Primarily based in the south-west, they have offices from Plymouth to Aberdeen, so partners’ meetings involve a lot of travel. ‘Also, a few years ago, a Bristol firm wouldn’t have been acting for a Norwegian client. But this is something we as a profession have to address,’ he says.



So far, over the last six months, the firm has saved nearly 70,000 miles of inter-office travel by using video-conferencing for internal meetings. As an added bonus, that has translated into £26,000 savings in travel expenses.





Energy in buildings

The other big factor in law firms’ carbon emissions is the energy used in their buildings. Herbert Smith’s Brophy says an analysis of their carbon footprint showed their buildings accounted for 74%. ‘We put in place a relatively simple programme of switching off lights and machines at night and made a 16% reduction in electricity use in Exchange House and 12% in Citygate House.’



They have also introduced a new bottled water system, refilling in-house with reuseable bottles. With the London offices using about 360 bottles a day – more than 93,000 a year – that has cut out 200 deliveries a year.



It can be hard for firms leasing offices to make significant changes unless their landlord is similarly motivated. But firms moving into their own buildings or having offices refurbished can set their own specifications. Dickinson Dees is keen to ensure its new offices in York are energy efficient.



‘One of the benefits of the alliance,’ says Finch, ‘is the advice you get from other firms who have been through similar processes. Servers and IT departments tend to be put in the deepest, darkest dungeons, but the facilities manager of one of the alliance members advised me that they should be put in an area with natural ventilation, which can save a lot of energy as you don’t need air conditioning to keep them cool.’



Manchester firm Pannone had an environmental assessment carried out by the Carbon Trust, which recommended a series of changes. Some, says partner Andrea Cohen, cost little, while ‘others were at great expense, such as changing our heating system which we couldn’t implement because we rent two of our buildings’.



In London, the carbon mentoring scheme Green500 aims to help 500 of London’s largest public and private organisations to cut their CO2 emissions. National law firm Eversheds was one of the first members to sign up. Environmental manager Claire Goody says: ‘We joined because we recognise the need to meet the challenges of climate change. We have set ourselves stringent energy-saving targets, having exceeded our 2007 target of reducing emissions by 10%.’



Being green is increasingly high on firms’ agendas. Brophy says the impetus comes to a large extent from employees and it is an important factor in attracting graduate recruits. It is also increasingly a key issue for clients when firms are tendering for work. ‘We can’t advise our clients on what they should be doing if we aren’t challenging ourselves on how we operate,’ he says.



The commercial driver is also clear, says Finch. ‘You can’t get past first base on many tenders unless you have an environmental policy.’



However, he was very keen not to present it to his firm’s management as ‘“win, win, win”, because [though] we would get publicity, a warm feeling that we were doing good, as well as accreditation and we would save money, there is no such thing as a free lunch and I don’t think we are at a stage where I could say it’s costing us X or it’s saving us Y. And frankly that would never be the first criterion, because we are committed to doing this.’



So how much is enthusiasm to be seen to be green driven by altruism and how much by commercial imperatives? Radford is in no doubt that the legal sector can make a difference, both internally and along its supply chain. But when it comes to daily progress, she is pragmatic: ‘As long as firms are doing something, [that] is better than nothing.’



Grania Langdon-Down is a freelance journalist





Case study - Crown Prosecution Service



For the Crown Prosecution Service, an important first step to earning its environmental credentials has been getting accreditation through the Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme (EEAS), which is run by the Carbon Trust, the National Energy Foundation and the Energy Institute.



The EEAS works by evaluating organisations’ energy management against standards in three areas: management commitment to energy efficiency; investment in energy efficiency measures; and improvements in energy efficiency performance.



The scheme examines not only policy and good practice, but also real outcomes. Three years of data are reviewed for each organisation to look for the influence of internal standards on its resultant energy consumption.



Tim Dexter, the CPS’s sustainable development adviser, says it has built its commitment to reducing emissions into its business plan. It is also seeing what staff want through a survey and by setting up a new green group advisory panel.



So far, 79% of the CPS’s electricity is from renewable sources. Its confidential waste contract shreds all paper waste and sends it for recycling. Since the start of the contract in December 2004, more than 3,000 tonnes of paper and 63 tonnes of cardboard have been collected, equating to 56,000 trees. All CPS cleaning contracts require the contractors to supply and use environmentally friendly products.



The CPS is also part of the government’s air travel offsetting scheme and seeks to be carbon neutral by 2012.





Case study - Nicholas Moore



Few firms can claim to be as environmentally conscious as Somerset-based Nicholas Moore, which is moving later this year into an 18th century converted barn with accommodation provided for local bats, sparrows and swallows.



Its principal, Nicholas Moore, a former employment partner with Osborne Clarke, wants the modern materials proposed for the conversion replaced where possible with a local timber frame, flint from the nearby Blackdown Hills and ‘cob’ for the top of the walls. They are also going to participate in a mini district heating scheme with three houses using a boiler fuelled by locally sourced wood chip, which should cost £1,500 a year as opposed to £10,000 using oil. They are also looking at rain water harvesting and they hope to introduce renewable energy in a couple of years ‘when the payback becomes sensible’.



He is adamant that ‘I want the impact of this building to be at a minimum but its ethical credentials to be at a maximum’.



The lawyers and practice staff only go into the office when it is essential, otherwise they work from home. And, as part of a policy to reduce air travel, Moore offers staff an extra two days to tack onto their holiday if they drive rather than fly to Europe.



‘We are the smallest member of the Legal Sector Alliance,’ he says. ‘While the subscription caused us to suck our teeth slightly harder than colleagues in bigger firms, as lawyers we are, by and large, comfortably off and I feel we would be neglecting our social responsibility if we didn’t put our hands in our pockets for something of this importance.



‘When I first started thinking about green issues, I saw it as doing something in the interests of my children’s children. I think now it is an issue for me.’