It’s a new green world at California law firms
By Diane Curtis
Staff Writer
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The cornstarch spoons may have melted in the soup, but that didn’t discourage
Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP from pursuing a firmwide commitment to conservation
and sustainability. The perseverance paid off: In 2003, Wendel Rosen became
the first law firm to be certified by the Bay Area Green Business Program before,
as Executive Director Gina Maciula puts it, “it got cool.”
ENERGY STAR appliances and electronics are the norm at the firm’s
Oakland and Modesto offices. Walls are colored with non-toxic paints. Furniture
wood is from sustainable forests. Much of the ink is composed of soy. Water
consumption is down, as is paper use. The paper that is used is recyclable
as well as chlorine-free. Computers automatically turn off when not in use.
Light switches have motion sensors. The firm no longer buys cartloads of water
bottled in plastic containers. Carpet doesn’t off-gas.
“They’re really terrific,” says Ceil Scandone, regional
coordinator for the Bay Area Green Business Program. “They’re very,
very environmentally conscious.”
Scandone is happy to report that growing numbers of law firms and other businesses
in the Bay Area also are getting the green message. “We’ve seen
about a 30 percent increase (to 1,200) in the number of businesses that go
through the program,” which started in 1996 in Alameda, says Sandone.
Now all nine Bay Area counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa,
San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma — offer it and
each county has a coordinator to advise and offer help to interested businesses.
Firms that are certified are listed on the program’s Web site.
Nixon Peabody also has been a leader in going green, becoming the first law
firm in the nation to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design) certification in the category of Commercial Interiors for construction
at its San Francisco office. Two years ago, when the firm was making plans
to move to a bigger space, lawyers there pushed to use the move as an opportunity
to start from scratch using environmentally friendly products and practices.
Like Wendel Rosen, carpet at Nixon Peabody, which leases space, is recycled,
paint is non-toxic, furniture is formaldehyde-free, lights are fluorescent,
faucets have restricted flow and toilets are dual flush. In addition, old furniture
was reused or recycled rather than added to the landfill. The use of natural
lights, with glass walls and glass doors, is prevalent through the office spaces.
Walnut — from trees that outlived their usefulness in an orchard — make
up the floors.
Countertops in the office’s coffee areas are made of recycled glass. “It
turns out green can be extremely elegant,” says office administrator
Tim Blevins. “We had this vision of 1970s hippie style” when green
building was first suggested, he says, but it turned out quite different. Plus,
Blevins adds, there was “no financial disincentive.” The extra
cost in going green was about 1 to 1 1/2 percent more than it would have by
not going green. Wendel Rosen’s Maciula says her firm also found costs
reasonable, and she expects the savings to more than pay for any extras over
time. But her first reaction was not so sanguine. She remembers thinking, “Oh
no. This is going to cost a ton of money.”
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There has been trial and error attached to going green, especially for the
pioneers. Besides the melting utensils, Wendel Rosen lawyers and staff found
that the first generations of recycled paper jammed the printers. Cost was
a bigger factor in the early days, too, but Wendel Rosen was determined to
lead the green charge, and while some costs went up, savings elsewhere balanced
the rise. Like a number of firms that have gone green, Wendel Rosen took a
look at its own green practices when it started doing legal work in sustainability.
Richard Lyons was one of the founders of the green practice at Wendel Rosen,
doing work with wind turbines and solar energy. One of his partners was doing
work with Clif Bar, which strongly espoused green policies.
“Our clients in the green businesses like it, and, frankly, most other
clients like it,” says Lyons. The firm’s lawyers and staff also
are enthusiastic, he says. “People like to work for a firm which is trying
to live these values because a lot of our staff feel this way personally.” The
landlord also has taken a hint from its tenant by starting to compost and doing
more intensive recycling.
To receive certification from the Bay Area Green Business Program, businesses
must be in compliance with all environmental regulations, such as those dealing
with wastewater, storm water, hazardous materials and waste and air quality.
In addition, they must take other measures to preserve resources and prevent
pollution, such as buying only recycled paper and copying double-sided, cleaning
with less toxic products, using efficient lighting systems to save energy and
conserving water with low-flow toilets and faucet aerators.
Under Attorney General Jerry Brown, the California Department of Justice kicked
off an aggressive statewide green program for its employees in January that
coincides with the department’s litigation efforts to reduce global warming
and greenhouse gas emissions. “Putting its words into action,” as
Linda Brughelli, chair of the DOJ’s Green Office program, puts it, the
department has converted to use of recycled paper, stepped up recycling efforts
and sponsored electronic waste recycling events for employees.
A Web site provides information for going green both at the office and at
home and promotes use of recycled supplies and equipment as well as encourages
contact with community environmental agencies and participation in community
environmental projects. The office is considering purchase of power management
software to reduce the consumption of energy in its IT operation, and its data
center has consolidated about 30 percent of its servers under a plan to reduce
energy use.
State Bar of California President Jeff Bleich led an effort to create a State
Bar Task Force on Sustain-able Practice that will present recommendations on
voluntary standards for environmentally sustainable law practice to the bar’s
board of governors in July. The recommendations, says Bleich, will include
business practices as well as “some carrots and some sticks” to
promote green actions by law firms.
“The legal profession always has been a leader,” Bleich says. “We
have every kind of business and civic leader coming to our offices, and that
can send a message.” He says the goal also is to have the bar look at
its own practices, including the possibility of creating a permanent bar card
rather than sending out about 150,000 new ones each year. The task force also
will develop MCLE-eligible sustainability training for bar members.
The ABA also is encouraging green practices with its ABA-EPA Law Office Climate
Challenge. About 70 firms have gained recognition since the program started
last March, and Daniel Eisenberg, a Washington lawyer with Beveridge and Diamond
who heads the program for the ABA, says about seven or eight firms are added
every two weeks. “I’d like to see hundreds of firms sign up,” adds
Eisenberg. “I think it’s within reach.”
Being a part of the Challenge requires that a law office adopt “best
practices for office paper management” or meet minimum requirements for
participation in at least one of the EPA programs, such as WasteWise, Green
Power Partner-ship or ENERGY STAR. Law firms that meet those requirements are
recognized as a Law Office Climate Challenge Partner. Those that achieve a
higher level of participation qualify as a Law Office Climate Challenge Leader. “This
is not meant to be a sign up and you’re done. This is supposed to be
a starting point for law firms,” says Eisenberg.
At firms making the effort to save the planet’s resources and make for
the healthiest environment, lawyers are echoing a refrain from Wendel Rosen’s
Lyons: “We can’t just talk the talk. We’ve got to walk the
walk.”
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