Sustainability – Managing Partner, property firm
Q12: Environmental issues are clearly of increasing concern to our employees. However many partners simply don’t see the need for sustainability to be high on our agenda. How have others kept both groups on side?
RESPONSES
1 May – Director of Finance, Top 100 law firm
We have taken this seriously and have adopted an environmental policy. One key driver has been some of our larger not for profit and Public Sector clients who are looking to their advisers and suppliers to show clear evidence they have such policies. There is also a genuine desire from employees and some partners to actively pursue sustainability. One example has been to issue all employees with a mug and eliminate paper cups. There are of course significant financial savings in adopting sustainable approaches to eg. photocopying ( recycling bins for paper, photocopiers set to double sided, use recycled paper). Electricity costs can be reduced by powering down lights out of core hours.
This combination of client, financial and employee pressure has led to partners accepting the need to take this issue seriously.
1 May – Managing Partner, Top 100 law firm
We are undertaking a complete refurbishment of our premises and are going open plan and paper...less (not paperless - although filing is now largely done through our PCs). We are doing this to modernise our business approach, practices and outlook and to keep down our costs. Helping the environment has not been at the forefront of the initiative but the work has forced us to look closely at environmental issues. Generally, the response has been positive (although the initiative has had its naysayers and we still have people who would have preferred us to stay as we were). It is still early days for us but I think the initiative’s chances of success would have been limited if we had done all of this for ‘environmental’ reasons. If you are not in a position to bring about this sort of change then I would suggest that to get buy in you will need to demonstrate how environmentally friendly policies will help your practice and ultimately your bottom line.
1 May – US chief of staff, Global law firm
We have an environmental practice, so it is not a problem for us, however, we also find that many of the associates are very concerned about environmental issues which drives the partners to also keep their hands on the pulse of these issues. One suggestion would be to get a feel for the interest some of your key staff members have on this and possibly form a group to suggest some ideas and see them through. Awareness is always a good place to start. We also find that clients want to know what initiatives we are taking. Perhaps there is an approach there.
Hope this is helpful. Happy to be contacted directly if you would like to discuss further.
1 May – Joint CEO, Global law firm
As the Prince of Wales said today, at his second Climate Change Summit, the effects of climate change could be the same as the effects of the Great Depression and the Second World War put together, if not greater!
How bad have things got to be before partners start to take notice? I don't think we can be cynical, if we want our children and their children, to enjoy the world as we have known it. Everyone has to play their part, and it isn't difficult. Collectively we can make a huge difference. Reacting to climate change can also make us more efficient and improve our bottom line. It is the responsibility of senior partners and all leaders in firms to ensure that their partners, staff, suppliers and clients are aware of the issues and know that their firm is doing their bit to respond.
1 May – Director of Business Operations, Top 150 law firm
We are getting more questions from staff about whether we will support environmental initiatives and we do. We have active policies, but mainly to satisfy staff demand and the inevitable Green credentials questions in tender requests.
In truth if we put a cost on this and asked clients if they would pay more to allow us to be more environmentally friendly they'd of course want the cheaper blacker option!
We cannot even get recycling services to service our premises because our out put is too low volume. So we collaborate with neighbouring businesses to produce enough volume between us all to merit a joint collection.
What a farce!
1 May – Director of Finance and Administration, Top 50 law firm
We have set up a CSR committee which has representation from partners, management, fee earning, secretarial and admin staff.
The group meets once a month and committee members canvass staff for issues they would like raised. Agenda and minutes of the meetings appear on our intranet.
Agreed actions are followed up - be it introducing mugs to replace paper cups or donating computer equipment to charities.
The committee has been very effective and the staff that are environmentally and social responsibly minded are happy with the forum - it is surprising how much we did before a committee was formed but failed to communicate it.
As far as the committee itself is concerned most of the proposals they have put forward have been sensible and workable with proportionately few being rejected.
2 May – Managing Partner, Top 5 Australian law firm
Environmental issues, and wider social responsibility issues, are becoming more important every year. Partner resistance is only in pockets and we have found the best thing to do is get on with the programs and communication to and involve all staff, highlight the clients who care about our environmental stance, make the link to winning work in climate change, and enter competitions/indexes to bring focus to areas where we can improve and to generate news to promote.
Download the responses