Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP is firmly committed to promoting environmentally sustainable business operations. We embrace a variety of policies and initiatives aimed at reducing our overall environmental footprint in a meaningful and measurable manner. In short, we recognize sustainability as a core value of our firm. We understand the goal of achieving sustainability is a mission that is never “completed” in the true sense of the word. It is a goal that requires continuous effort, ongoing support and constant vigilance on the part of everyone at our firm.

Firm Efforts and Initiatives

We believe actions speak louder than words. Established in 2008, the Neal Gerber Eisenberg Green Committee works to promote and encourage an increased level of environmental awareness and responsibility among the firm’s attorneys and staff. Among key goals of the Green Committee is communicating firm-wide the benefits of sustainability and “going green.” Sustainability initiatives undertaken by the firm include:

• promoting “print only when necessary” and training our administrative personnel on the use and benefits of double-sided printing and copying;
• advocacy of a “lights & energy” program (e.g., turn off the lights when leaving an empty room, shutting down the computer at day’s end);
• promoting the use of personal water bottles/coffee mugs;
• increasing our use of shredding bins as a means of recycling old records and files (in 2009 alone the firm shredded and recycled over 90 tons of paper);
• encouraging bicycling to and from work by arranging for secure inside bicycle storage space at our office building;
• promoting the use of public transportation through financial incentives;
• use of recycling bins by each workspace/desk to recycle paper items;
• use of recycling bins in the firm’s kitchen/coffee areas and in every conference room at the firm for the recycling of glass, plastic and metal;
• incorporating LEED guidelines in new office space construction;
• replacing hard-copy inter-office mailings with electronic online communications where possible;
• promoting the paperless exchange between the firm and clients via enhanced use of secure “e-rooms”;
• switching to copy paper made with post-consumer recycled content; and
• replacing plastic and Styrofoam kitchen supplies (plates, hot and cold cups, napkins) with products made from recycled, and compostable recyclable, materials.

Recently, our firm conducted an onsite audit of our firm’s recycling practices (via an independent outside party) to better understand what we have accomplished and where we can better marshal our resources to focus and further improve our sustainability efforts.

ABA-EPA Law Office Climate Challenge

Our firm is recognized by the ABA-EPA Law Office Climate Challenge as a Law Office Climate Challenge Partner for adopting best practices of office paper management. The Climate Challenge is designed to encourage law offices to take specific steps to conserve energy and resources, as well as reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

EPA WasteWise Program

Building upon our efforts to reduce waste in our normal business operations, our firm became a Partner in the EPA WasteWise Program, a voluntary program that encourages organizations to reduce municipal solid waste, including paper waste. After registering with WasteWise and submitting a plan for office paper management that entails meeting at least two of the three WasteWise best practices, our firm was first recognized in 2009 as a WasteWise Partner. In 2010, EPA WasteWise representatives reviewed our firm’s 2009 annual assessment data and prepared an individualized Climate Profile of our data. Such a profile is developed for every organization selected as a Partner in the EPA WasteWise Program. The profile translates the annual waste prevention and recycling data into greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions and equivalency statements to help profiled organizations quantify the impact of its waste reduction program on its respective climate footprint. According to EPA WasteWise, based on our firm’s recycling efforts in 2009, our firm saved the equivalent of:

• annual emissions from 87 cars;
• three acres of forest;
• annual emissions from 43 households;
• 54,000 gallons of gas;
• 19,900 propane cylinders used for home barbeques; or
• 164 tons of waste from being land filled.