At Eversheds Sutherland we understand that our operations have a local, regional and global impact.

We are committed to the protection of the environment, promoting the conservation of natural resources and preventing environmental pollution. We have identified our significant impacts as energy and paper usage, business related travel, and waste production.

We regard environmental regulations, laws and codes of practice as the minimum standard that we should aim for and actively work towards exceeding these benchmarks.

We raise awareness of this policy through guidelines and internal communications.

Consultation and communication

Eversheds Sutherland acknowledges that consultation between employees at all levels is a vital component of effective environmental management. Consultation with employees is carried out through liaison with employee representatives and our Environmental Committee (an arm of our CSR Committee). Feedback also comes back to us through our employee forums.

One of the remits of the Environmental Committee is to communicate its commitment to the environment internally and endeavours to ensure that everyone affected is familiar with our Environmental Policy and arrangements.

Communication may be oral, in writing, or by demonstration.

Distribution of environmental policy and arrangements

The environmental policy will be made available on our intranet and will also be displayed on notice boards around the business. New employees will receive a copy of the policy at their induction and will be asked to make themselves familiar with it.

Energy

As part of its environmental strategy, Eversheds Sutherland is committed to responsible energy management and works to reduce its energy consumption throughout all its premises by installing energy efficient plant and equipment, wherever it is cost-effective to do so and by encouraging employees to reduce unnecessary consumption.

We aim to control energy consumption in order to:

• protect the environment
• avoid unnecessary expenditure
• promote sustainable use of global resources

Our objectives are to:

• buy fuels at the most economic cost
• use them as efficiently as is practicable
• reduce the loss of energy from our buildings to the minimum practical level
• reduce the amount of pollution, particularly CO, NOx, SO and PM emissions, caused by energy consumption and reduce, where possible, our dependence on fossil fuels through the use of renewable energy.

The Firm plays its part by adopting the Power of One at Work – Energy Savings campaign in the office.

We have asked our colleagues for their help by remembering to do the following:

Computers

• Shutting down PCs every evening including the monitor. Our IT team produces a daily report showing whether an individual’s PC has been shut down the night before, this is monitored and reminders are sent on a frequent basis.
• We have also informed them that switching off the monitors when away from their desk will save even more energy rather than just letting the screensaver or “sleep” mode run.

Laptop Bags

• Our Dell EcoLoop Pro Carrying Cases use several innovative technologies to reduce the environmental impact of manufactured goods. The main exterior material is produced using 100% OceanCycle Certified™ ocean-bound plastic. This material helps to combat the global ocean plastic crisis by being sourced from within 50 km of an ocean coastline or major waterway and helps to provide economic growth opportunities for local communities who collect and sell the material.
• The main exterior materials are also coloured using a process which eliminates the traditional dyeing process entirely by adding colouring agents during the initial fiber creation process which results in not only better colourfastness but up to 90% less wastewater, up to 29% less energy, and up to 62% less CO2 emissions than those traditional dyeing processes.

Office equipment

• The last person on the floor in the evenings is asked to ensure that all other office equipment such as printers, scanners and photocopiers are fully switched off.

Heating

• For energy efficiency the thermostat setting on each floor should not exceed 20°C.
• Shades or blinds are opened on a cold sunny day to reduce the burden on the heating system.

Print

We have moved to a managed print service incorporating the following:

• follow me print
• pull print
• multiple printers being replaced by MFP
• devices
• double-sided print default setting

Paper

• Only confidential files are placed in our recycling bins. Non-confidential documents are placed in the general rubbish bins for recycling.
• Where possible all documents are printed 2-up or double-sided if available.
• Where possible, e-mails are read on the screen and documents are edited on screen to minimize the number of pages printed – this saves both energy and paper.
• Where possible, we store files in a soft copy format rather than hard copy, this saves paper as well as reducing storage requirements.
• Draft letters are only printed on yellow paper as this is lighter and therefore its production uses up fewer trees. Also, there is less production involved as is does not have to go through the branding process so it has less of an environmental impact.
• Where possible, e-letters are sent rather than posting hard copies.
• Unwanted paper is considered for using the back of it for note taking.
• As a law firm, we are large users of paper. To reduce the amount of paper - we send electronic invitations, order electronically and only print emails and documents when necessary. By measuring the amounts of paper purchased on a monthly basis, we can see when and where any reductions are made.
• Through using our shredding provider service, the equivalent of over 1,000 trees were saved by our shredding in 2019.