Allens Arthur Robinson says they have been a firm focused on the environment for around ten years, after two influential partners with a penchant for sustainability began to wield their influence in the workplace.

Allens says they have been a firm focused on the environment for around ten years, after two influential partners with a penchant for sustainability began to wield their influence in the workplace. Once the seeds were sown, a groundswell soon developed, with more and more staff demanding that something be done to reduce the firm's carbon footprint. In 2006, footprint committees were established across the national offices and the firm has achieved some remarkable milestones since then. In 2010, the firm was awarded the WSP Lincolne Scott Sustainability Leadership Award at the United Nations Association of Australia's World Environment Day Awards.

What have they achieved?

Over the past five years, Allens has managed to save around $3.9 million because of reductions in energy use, paper consumption and water use, to name a few. Some of their initiatives include:

- converting to 75 per cent green power for all Australian offices;

- switching the majority of cases to electronic filing, thus reducing their printing from 61 million pages five years ago to 28 million in 2010, and heading for 23 million this year;

- virtualising the legal services in the Hong Kong office, thus reducing power usage by 85 per cent;

- saving 18 Olympic swimming pools worth of water, which they did by going to waterless urinals in all offices;

- saving 785 megawatts of power each year, which is the equivalent of 91 bar radiators being on all the time, all year;

- becoming officially sustainable, with an audit concluding that their carbon usage only needs 0.8 earths to be sustained.

The experience so far

According to Gwenyth Taylor, who was charged with the task of getting the firm to carbon neutral status, implementing the strategies needed to increase the firm's sustainability has not been difficult, largely due to the huge amount of interest and support from staff.

"We've encouraged staff to make suggestions, and some have made some insane suggestions, like taking the lights out of the fridges," she says.

"That saves a miniscule amount of power, but every time you open the fridge, you're reminded that sustainability really matters here."

And while Taylor admits there are still a few cynics around, she says the footprint committees have ensured that the effort has become part and parcel of working at the firm.

"[The project] is really getting a life of its own," she says. "You see people in a meeting and someone will look over at someone else who has printed a one-page agenda and say, 'Did you really feel the need to print that?'"

What's next?

Taylor says that being declared sustainable was a huge highlight for the firm and a fantastic reward for their effort. "Boy, did we have a party! We are sustainable!" she says. "It just inspires people and it makes you do even more."

And "even more" includes plans to move towards swipe-card printing, which is expected to reduce printing by a further 20 per cent, and partnering up with a client to establish a carbon offset project.

"The thing that we're most excited about is the notion of a project where we team up with one of our clients in a country like Vietnam and install a hydro-power system," she explains. "It's state-of-the-art technology so there's absolutely no waste, there are no carbon emissions, it powers a village, it educates a village, and it gives social development and employment to the people of the village who have to look after it.

"That will get us to the magical carbon neutral status. That will get our emissions equivalent down to zero. Exciting, don't you think? That's what we'd like to do."