Estimated read time: 3 minutes
Law firms are starting to talk more openly about their environmental impact, or their sustainability goals. Like nexa law, there are firms which are members of the Legal Sustainability Alliance; an inclusive movement of law firms committed to working collaboratively to take action to improve the environmental sustainability of their operations.
It’s an important step towards recognising that law firms, like all businesses, play a pivotal role in saving the planet. But what environmental footprint do law firms actually have? And why might nexa law be ahead of the game when it comes to environmental sustainability?
Environmental footprint
It’s amazing to think about the number of ways in which a law firm has an impact on the environment. When most people think law firms, they think about paper! At nexa law, we’re paper light and try our best to only generate paper documents when they are original signed documents that need to be retained. Even then, we’re able to scan them in many cases so we’re as close to being paper free as we think it’s possible for a law firm to be!
Our Consultant Lawyers recognise the speed and convenience that comes with using email and secure cloud file sharing as the predominant means of communicating and sharing documents. The days of printed bundles are thankfully behind us in most circumstances. Not only does this have a huge benefit to the environment, it also makes the lives of our Consultant Lawyers easier. With fully electronic files and cloud storage, you can literally run your matters from anywhere!
But paper isn’t the only environmental impact of a law firm’s activities. The resources required to run an office should not be underestimated. Light, heat, water and waste are all relevant factors when looking at the environmental implications of being in business. Not all firms will have total control over the environmental footprint of their offices. But certainly having measures in place to ensure that energy is used sparingly will be valuable, and arrangements to ensure that power is purchased from renewable sources should be encouraged.
At Nexa we are proud to be a “Green Achiever” which means that as an organisation we are always actively thinking about our environmental footprint and ways to improve it.
Travel
One of the environmental factors which businesses – including law firms – ought to give more attention to is the extent to which they make their employees travel to work. One of the great advantages of joining nexa law is the opportunity to ditch the commute. But have you ever thought about the environmental impact of your journey to work? Those who use public transport or walk or cycle to work have relatively low impact, but there are still plenty of people who end up getting in the car everyday.
Perhaps with the growing interest in electric cars, the commute could one day have a lesser environmental impact. But for now, firms such as nexa are leading the way in offering a hugely flexible solutions for lawyers – and ones which potentially have a very significant environmental benefit. Many of our Consultant Lawyers establish offices at home, but even those that don’t are able to choose office locations which suit their lifestyle, and their environmental conscience!
Joining nexa law could be a good move for your career and a good move for the environment too! So if you want to go green with nexa law, get in touch with Eliot Hibbert using [email protected].