As things get literally hotter this summer, one of the “hot” topics on many people’s minds is sustainability. Also, ice cream, but I digress.

At the ILN, we’ve been thinking about sustainability for a while now. As the Network’s only employee, it has made sense for many years that I work remotely from a home office and we used the pandemic as an excuse to go completely paperless at our conferences, except for our name tags. I’ve been paperless at our office for much longer.

Why Sustainability Matters

But why should we care about sustainability (other than it being the right thing to do)? Firstly, there is a global need for sustainable practices to help combat the climate crisis and environmental degradation We can all do our part as individuals, but it is really as businesses that we can start to make a difference and every bit helps.

Like everything else, there is also a business case for sustainability, though I prefer the human one. Being sustainable helps to improve an organization or law firm’s reputation, attracts clients with similar goals, and helps to reduce costs.

Key Areas of Focus for Organizational Sustainability

Let’s talk about what we’re doing as an organization (I’ve already mentioned a couple of things), and then we can speak more broadly about what law firms can be doing if you’re not already.

• Being more energy-efficient: For us, working remotely achieves this because it means zero commuting, but it’s also things like swapping out light bulbs for more energy-efficient LEDs (though these costs are borne by me and not the ILN!), upgrading windows, and currently awaiting my HVAC folks to ensure that my ducts are leaking air conditioning out into the world.

The BIG piece of this for us is our events – they are the biggest energy investment for our organization. We work with a silver-medal EcoVadis-rated partner, Dynamic Conferences & Events, who work closely with all the suppliers at our events to ensure that the event is delivered as sustainably as possible. We also offset our yearly travel through carbon offsets and offer this as an option for each of our attendees, and use Dynamic’s carbon calculating software, TRACE, will be used to track data and manage the environmental impact of our event activities.

For companies and firms, it’s considering which of your in-person meetings are necessary versus creating a virtual meeting. That seems to be so natural these days that it’s almost not worth mentioning – although there ARE times that it’s important to be together face-to-face and make those connections, so I am certainly not advocating for getting rid of in-person meetings! But being judicious about what’s essential and what isn’t is a sustainable option!

• Waste reduction: We are a completely paperless office and our conferences are paperless as well, except for our name tags (and we’re looking at how to recycle those as well!). We promote recycling heavily with our partners, and, as an example, our next destination hotel has as its goal “to operate with no disposable plastics. So far, they have implemented aluminum water bottles in guest & meeting rooms as well as re-usable acrylic glasses and metal cutlery at the pool and bioplastics and wood cutlery at the beach, eco-friendly takeaway containers at the restaurant, and biodegradable straws throughout the property. They have also implemented refillable, BeeKind in-room guest toiletries as well as offering cloth in-room dry-cleaning bags.” It’s really exciting to see the creativity that organizations are using to reduce waste and recycle, and sharing these practices also encourages us all to identify how we can all do better. Is it necessary to have every option available at the next firm lunch? Or could every other lunch be vegetarian-only? It’s worth considering.
• Sustainable Procurement: We’ve already mentioned that we’re working with sustainable providers for our events, from our events team through to our hotels. We plan to continue to extend that through our full supplier list and vet all of our providers for their sustainability practices. Sometimes we focus so much on our sustainability practices that we forget to look at the suppliers that we are working with. We had already been thinking about this process and moving down that road when we began to work with Dynamic, and they were the ones who gave us the big push to be more sustainable in the way we wanted to be.
• Community Involvement: This is also essential for us – we used to give our delegates gifts ars part of the experience of attending a conference, as a memento to remember the city and the event. Several years ago, we began to use that money to invest in a local charity that was meaningful to the host law firm instead. We also invite a representative from that charity to speak to our assembled delegates to multiply the effects of the gift and we also like to organize part of the social events to connect with the community efforts as well, where it makes sense. Our law firms all have close community ties and do a lot of work in their respective communities, and however we can amplify that work, we are working to do so.
• Sustainable Office Design: One area that is not relevant to a completely remote office, but IS relevant to organizations and law firms is having a sustainable office design. Pursuing green building certifications (like LEED), using sustainable building materials, and creating a healthy office environment with the use of plants and natural light is essential. We do aim to include natural light in all of our conference spaces for our events now, which wasn’t a priority in the past, and it makes a huge difference when people can see the outdoors – even if they’re only in a session for three hours in the morning.

These are just a few suggestions that organizations can take away when considering a sustainability initiative at their own offices – many firms have undertaken these with great success and some have gone even further – what are some of the areas that your organization or firm excels at? What are some other suggestions that you have? What are some challenges you’ve faced in your sustainability journey?