Environment: Managing our impact

As a world leader in providing climate change advice to clients, we have to behave like one in our business operations. Why do we believe we should reduce our impact on the environment? Because our clients and members of the firm expect it and because we think it is the right thing to do.

Clifford Chance is the only law firm ranked top tier in the Chambers 2009 International and Europe-wide rankings for climate change practice groups. We recognise that we can only advise with conviction if we achieve high environmental standards ourselves.

On 1 May 2008 the firm published its Global Environmental Policy, available online at www.cliffordchance.com/cr. There is now an individual in every office responsible for collecting data and we report here on our progress towards the three-year targets that we set in 2008. Many small steps are being taken across the firm – and together they are adding up to significant inroads towards our goals. We also provide some highlights from our international Reduce, Reuse, Recycle campaign:

Target: Reduce CO₂ emissions by at least 3% from 2007/08 baseline.

Progress: In 2007/08 an external assessment of our CO₂ emissions was estimated at 5.02 tonnes per FTE. At the time this methodology was the best we had available, but there was an element of extrapolation required due to the inability to get data from all of our offices. Since then, we have changed our methodology to the internationally recognised Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and have been able to get more information. Our emissions for 2007 have thus been recalculated for greater accuracy resulting in a figure of 6.34 tonnes per FTE. For 2008/09, our CO₂ has increased to 6.65 tonnes per FTE. This has been caused both by more accurate data, but also by a reduction in employees without an accompanying reduction in the space we use. We were able to collect data from seven more offices this year than last year. Some of our offices are still not able to report electricity usage as they are not supplied this information by the landlord.

Target: Buy 10% of our energy from renewable sources where available.

Progress: Renewable energy is purchased for 100% usage by Luxembourg, Amsterdam and São Paulo. Frankfurt purchases 25%, Munich 22%, Dusseldorf 21% and Singapore 15%. This equates to 9% of total energy which is just below our 2011 target.

Target: Reduce water consumption by 3% per employee from available 2007/08 usage figures.

Progress: In taking on this target we have discovered that most of our offices are unable to provide water usage data as they do not have separate water meters. We are therefore amending this target to read: Introduce initiatives to reduce water consumption.

Target: Reduce paper use by 10% per employee from 2007/08 consumption.

Progress: Stripping out the two offices which had no data for 2007, we have reduced paper consumption by 90,299 reams, equivalent to a reduction of 10% per FTE and a cost saving of £150,000. We will look to continue progress on this target now that we have data from all of our offices.

Target: Recycle at least 25% of all general waste.

Progress: Most of our offices are now recycling elements of general waste including cans, plastic, IT equipment, batteries, toner cartridges, cardboard, glass, and food waste. In our London office, all of the food waste (about a tonne every week) is composted and given to local community groups through the not-for-profit organisation Aardvark.

Target: Recycle at least 30% of office paper waste.

Progress: Paper recycling is occurring in many of our offices; six of our offices recycle at least 30% of paper, and 12 of our offices recycle all of their waste paper.

Target: Ensure at least 10% of paper has at least 30% post-consumer recycled content.

Progress: Some of our offices have opted to purchase paper from FSC or similar certified sources, which support sustainable forestry practices. In recognising the additional benefit of including sustainable forestry in our paper purchasing, this target has been amended to read: Ensure at least 10% of paper has at least 30% post consumer recycled content or comes from FSC or other internationally recognised, certified sources which have a low carbon footprint. Nine of our offices have individually achieved this target.