Or Partner or Partners

Sustainability

Preserving our natural environment is an issue of increasing concern both to our clients and our employees. We do more than meet the spirit and letter of all relevant legislation, we are taking steps to minimise our environmental impact still further through:

  • recycling initiatives for paper, cans and glass
  • encouraging our staff to contribute to firm-wide efforts to reduce waste and energy use by switching off lights and PCs
  • collaborating with our business neighbours to consolidate recycling activities - reducing pollution and congestion in the area
  • contributing to the debate about the role of business in helping to combat environmental issues as a member of various business networks and discussion groups

Our employees are the key to Herbert Smith becoming more environmentally responsible and we conduct regular feedback sessions with a group drawn from across the firm.

Highlights include:

  • the completion of a carbon footprint assessment in January 2007 and repeated in January 2008. We reduced our carbon footprint by 236 tonnes CO2e in 2007 on the previous year, mainly through energy efficiency measures
  • the formation of the Sustainability Group of partners and senior support managers who meet regularly to agree actions to help us reduce our environmental impact
  • collaborative working with our landlords and fellow tenants on the Broadgate Estate in the City of London to agree targets to improve energy efficiency within our buildings, and pool waste management and recycling systems to further reduce our collective impact
  • introducing new recycling facilities in December 2007 for paper, cans, glass and plastic bottles – a vast improvement on the previous facilities
  • introducing other recycling initiatives including mobile phones, ink cartridges, batteries and library books
  • recycling 174 tonnes of paper and cardboard from our London offices in 2007 and encouraging staff to reduce paper usage through Duplex printing
  • making Fairtrade products available in our kitchen areas and restaurants
  • introducing an on-site water filtration system, providing purified water to our conference facilities and eliminating the need for bottled water