Transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) reduced its carbon emissions by 16% last year according to the Legal Sustainability Alliance’s 2018 Carbon Report out this week.
The Legal Sustainability Alliance (LSA) is an inclusive movement of law firms and organisations committed to working collaboratively to take action and improve the environmental sustainability of their operations and activities. The LSA was founded in 2007 by a group of leading law firms, including WBD, to take positive action on climate change by measuring, reducing and reporting on their carbon footprint.
59 LSA members have again this year reported their carbon emission figures across a range of sources including waste, electricity, water, rail, air, road amongst others. The LSA continues to make substantial progress in reducing its collective carbon footprint with an overall reduction of 11% in the per capita emissions since last year.
In this year's report, WBD reported a further reduction of 16% in carbon emissions and 14% per employee, representing the fourth consecutive reduction in emissions since 2013. Overall the firm's carbon footprint has reduced by 39% in the past 8 years, a tremendous achievement for WBD after it introduced a number of initiatives to support the firm's green agenda including introducing a new travel policy, increasing investment in video conferencing, reducing printing and working collaboratively with like-minded suppliers to ensure their environmental policies dovetail with the firm's approach.
Martin Hall, Head of Facilities Management at WBD, commented:
"We're delighted to have successfully reduced our carbon emissions for the fourth consecutive year, the positive figures highlight our commitment to enhancing our environmental performance and finding sustainable ways to improve our environmental management systems.
"We're proud to have been part of an organisation like the LSA from the very beginning which encourages law firms of all sizes to become increasingly sustainable and to reduce their carbon footprint. This is of paramount importance – primarily for our planet – and also financially as it helps reduce costs and retain clients who are more and more interested in the green credentials of their supply chain."
WBD was recently awarded the ISO14001 accreditation, the global gold standard accolade for environmental management and continues to work in close collaboration with the Legal Sustainability Alliance to reduce CO2 emissions and adopt environmentally sustainable practices. The firm is also an ambassador for the Right Waste, Right Place campaign, a national initiative aimed at raising awareness of the Duty of Care for waste amongst UK businesses.
