ENVIRONMENT: alliance to help reduce carbon emissions


A coalition of magic circle, City and national firms joined forces with the Environmental Law Foundation and the Law Society this week to 'lead the profession in the fight against climate change'.



The Legal Sector Alliance will focus on developing environmental principles which can be applied to law firms of any size to help them reduce their carbon emissions.



David Cheyne, senior partner at magic circle firm Linklaters, which is involved in the project, said law firms would achieve more by working together rather than individually, adding: 'Hopefully our collaborative action will make a significant contribution to tackling climate change.'



Elaine Radford, head of corporate social responsibility at national firm DLA Piper, which is also involved in the project, said firms should start reducing emissions now because regulation is almost certainly inevitable.



She said: 'I am sure at some point there will be regulation, whether in terms of due diligence of your carbon footprint or offsetting... one can only imagine there has to be some kind of audit of what business is doing and not just what it says it is doing.'



Firms could, she said, implement 'quick win' measures to reduce their carbon footprint, such as checking that suppliers are local and environmentally conscious, not printing documents unless absolutely necessary and setting targets to cut emissions.



The alliance currently includes 18 law firms, but is open to all firms. Founder members include: magic circle firms Allen & Overy, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May; City firms Lovells, Herbert Smith and Taylor Wessing; and national firms Eversheds and Irwin Mitchell.



- See www.legalsectoralliance.com



Anita Rice