The Legal Sector Alliance Symposium will be broadcast live at 15:30 (GMT) tommorrow to showcase the model and share learning with colleagues and interested parties across the world. That is a great opportunity for all of us to increase the bandwidth of our possibilities.

You can join it on www.lsasymposium2009.com.  

To mark the COP15 event, the professionals from one of the biggest companies worldwide, DLA Piper, invite us on their LSA Symposium webinar. There we can find out more about this groundbreaking sector collaboration. It it a prove that big companies can do something really and mostly - do it in a union. This will be an interactive event and online participants are able to engage directly with the Symposium in London by posting questions to the panellists via the website.

An expert panel will review LSA performance and goals as well as providing analysis of trends in corporate sustainability.  The Panellists are Tony Juniper, Sustainability Adviser and Environmentalist (chair), David Nussbaum, Chief Executive WWF UK, Jon Williams, Partner PricewaterhouseCoopers, Vanessa Havard-Williams, Partner Linklaters , Teresa Hitchcock, Partner DLA Piper.

The video streaming will be linked from the LSA homepage and is compatible with all PC and Macintosh platforms. The video site and detailed agenda will be live from November 30 – please ensure you are registered to participate online. You can see here some of the posted there videos, available all the time.

The Legal Sector Alliance is an inclusive movement of 150 law firms all of whom are committed to working collaboratively to reduce CO₂ emissions through public reporting and low carbon strategies.

To act as a framework for individual and collective action, they have developed a set of principles, which cover members’ own operations, as well as their wider influence on employees, suppliers, clients and policy makers.

To prove them, they have put into as online access they end-of-year report.

The catalyst behind it was DLA Piper, which has been taking a lead role in helping the legal profession to tackle climate change.

DLA Piper is among the largest legal service providers in the world in 2005. Building strong and substantial client relationships remark the DLA Piper's business strategy and future development. With Frank Burch as Chairman of our Global Board, the company today has 3,500 lawyers in more than 65 offices in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.

If you want to get involved here is what you can do:

1. Use the LSA Carbon Protocol to calculate your carbon footprint (click on the link)
2. Adopt the quick wins to take action and reduce costs immediately

Recycling/ Resource Use

• Provide glasses and mugs rather than disposable cups
• Limit use of disposable goods e.g. pens, in favour of reusable ones
• Make it easy for staff to recycle as much as possible; paper, card, glass, plastic, aluminium, CDs, batteries, old phones
• Take away individual waste bins from desks and replace with recycling bins
• Start composting food waste
• Lengthen the life of toner cartridges by adjusting printer settings in draft quality – and black and white
• Recycle used toner cartridges
• Recycle old computer equipment by giving it to local charities or community groups
• At Christmas, make a donation to charity rather than sending cards
• Use environmentally friendly cleaning products
• Give an active preference to products with minimal packaging and that are locally sourced
• Discourage excessive ordering of stationary by installing a central ordering system
• Use local suppliers/caterers where possible
• Maximise savings by putting up signage (printed on scrap paper) reminding staff to save energy and reduce waste
• Fix dripping taps

Paper Use

• Only print when necessary
• Save paper costs by buying 100% recycled paper and reusing discarded paper for notes – recycle all double-sided ‘scrap’ and use single sided to make notepads
• Default printers to print double-sided
• Print internal documents in size 11 font and reduce the borders to 1.5cm
• Inform staff whether agenda and minutes will or won't be available at meetings to avoid duplication of printing
• Send internal memos electronically
• Use ‘track changes’ to review documents rather than printing
• Cancel junk mail and unwanted publications
• Re-use bubble wrap, boxes and padded envelopes where possible
• Collect and re-use name badges after events and meetings where possible

Energy Use

• Minimise energy costs by ensuring that all equipment and lights are turned off (ie not left on standby) when not in use
• Install movement sensors to meeting rooms, encourage staff to switch off light switches by labelling light switches to indicate which area of the office they light – ask security to check all lights are switched off once the building is empty
• Encourage staff to switch off monitors when away from their desks for more than 5 – 10 minutes and to shut computers down when they leave the office. Turning off a single computer when not in use instead of on standby can save as much as £5 every year and turning one off that would have been on screen saver mode can save up to £45 a year
• Reduce energy bills by turning down the heating when it is not needed and always ensure that this is done before opening a window – check that heating is not timed to come on overnight or at weekends
• Turning the heating down by one degree saves 8% of the energy bill a year and the Environment Agency recommends 19 degrees Celsius is comfortable for most staff in the winter and 23 degrees Celsius in the summer
• If extra heating is needed, use oil-fuelled rather than electric fan heaters. They use 750w of energy as opposed to 3kw
• Ensure all light bulbs are energy efficient – LEDs are more efficient than halogen
• Ensure air conditioning vents or heating are not blocked by office furniture/boxes
• Switch your electricity supplier to a green tariff. Many suppliers will assist in monitoring energy use and promoting reduction

Transport use

• Save time, inconvenience and pollution by using conference calls rather than travelling to meetings where possible
• Provide interest-free season ticket loans
• Use cycle couriers where possible
• Use LPG and/or carbon neutral taxi companies and encourage use of public transport whenever possible by making this easier to book through a central system
• Encourage staff to cycle to work by installing secure bike racks, shower facilities and cycle mileage allowance
• Introduce travel policies that reward car sharing

3. View case studies to learn from the experiences of other firms and upload your own to highlight the action you’ve taken

Allen & Overy - ISO 14001 - Committing to meet international standards for the firm’s environmental management system, Allen & Overy has taken the first steps and is now in the final stages of achieving ISO14001 certification.

Andrew Jackson  -  Running a regional climate conference gave Andrew Jackson’s own internal Green Team the motivation to try and change the firm’s own working practices to become more environmentally friendly.

Barlow Robbins LLP - One of Surrey's leading law firms with offices in Guildford, Woking and Godalming.

Bond Pearce LLP - As a national law firm with five offices spread across the UK from Plymouth to Aberdeen, Bond Pearce wanted to find some way of reducing its inter-office travel. By providing a solution to the need to travel the firm knew it could reduce carbon emissions and save the valuable time of its employees. Therefore Bond Pearce invested in state of the art video conference facilities which can be expanded and updated as they are assimilated into the firm.

Cobbetts - Cobbetts discovered that, despite being a tenant in a multi-office building, there is always something you can do to take action on the environment.

DLA Piper - In January 2007, DLA Piper launched the Global Sustainability Initiative to affirm its commitment to reducing environmental impact and conducting business responsibly. The firm achieved global certification to ISO 14001 in December 2007.

DLA Piper - IS0 14001 - Achieving ISO 14001 certification for all eight UK office locations in 2003 was the foundation for DLA Piper’s push towards its goal of global certification, which it achieved in 2007.

Eversheds - Eversheds has 10 offices in the UK. The firm fully occupies some buildings, but is a tenant in others. This presented the firm with challenges in measuring its carbon footprint.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer  - Using the data from the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management, Freshfields has learnt that air travel and electricity are where it needs to make the most significant carbon reduction. Since 2005/6 Freshfields has been collecting data and holding monthly conference calls with environmental coordinators across the world to help manage its climate change impact.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP - Freshfields has experienced significant cost savings, as well as other indirect benefits, by reducing its PC energy waste

Gotelee and Goldsmith - Gotelee and Goldsmith. Medium sized firm based in Ipswich.

Higgs & Sons - Regional firm based in the Black Country. Employing approximately 165 staff over three operating offices in Brierley Hill, Stourbridge and Kingswinford.

Irwin Mitchell - Irwin Mitchell is an international law firm with seven offices throughout the UK and two in Spain, with a PC estate of approximately 2,500 computers. The firm decided to look at its computer usage as a way to make energy savings.

Linklaters - As a global law firm with 30 offices in 23 countries measuring its carbon footprint seemed like a daunting task. But having overcome that challenge, Linklaters has now set a target of reducing its carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 from a 2006/07 baseline.

Martineau - Occupying its building as a tenant created challenges for Martineau in seeking to footprint its energy usage and identify reduction measures. The firm believes there are advantages to working together with other tenants and the landlord.

Nicholas Moore  - Nicholas Moore, specialist employment lawyers, has discovered that working remotely means that its lawyers are more accessible to clients, lawyers are happier not commuting every day and they have reduced the firm’s carbon footprint. The firm has now expanded its environmentally friendly initiatives to other areas of their business.

Wragge & Co  - Wragge & Co has taken practical eco-efficient steps and engaged employees on its environmental priorities, resulting in waste reductions and costs savings for the firm.

4. Write them with any ideas on how the legal sector could help to address climate change