Environmental Initiatives

Making a Difference Together

Our environmental initiative is an important component of our CSR Policy. Our goal is to become a leader among the major Canadian law firms in reducing our environmental impact. In order to do this, we will work diligently to:

• take environmental considerations into account in decisions we make;
• involve our legal and non-legal staff in setting and achieving our goals through local and national initiatives;
• comply with (and wherever possible, exceed) applicable environmental requirements;
• reduce, reuse and recycle;
• purchase with a view to reducing our impact on the environment;
• encourage our landlords and suppliers to reduce their environmental impact;
• develop programs with clear targets and objectives and measure our environmental performance against them; and
• report on our environmental performance.

The following are a few examples of what we have done to date and what we plan to do in 2009.

Resource Use

Steps we have taken:

• reduce printing by using electronic software for large litigation files; and
• use double-sided printing.

Steps we will be taking:

• reducing use of plastic water bottles;
• installing automatic plumbing fixtures; and
• using environmentally friendly cleaning products.

Energy and Emissions

Steps we have taken:

• install energy-efficient videoconferencing equipment to reduce travel;
• install energy-efficient light bulbs; and
• use energy-efficient flat-screen monitors, computers and servers.

Steps we will be taking:

• providing secure bike storage;
• revising standard temperature in our offices to reduce heating and cooling;
• reducing lighting use through changes in technology and habits; and
• using power-save mode on equipment.

Waste

Steps we have taken:

• recycle ink cartridges;
• recycle 90 per cent of our paper waste;
• recycle batteries;
• donate old computer equipment to charity; and
• eliminating paper cups.

Steps we will be taking:

• reducing waste from kitchens by buying products in bulk; and
• installing more recycling containers throughout our offices.