Climate Challenge

In March 2007, the American Bar Association (ABA) partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on a two-year pilot project called the ABA-EPA Law Office Climate Challenge. The project is designed to encourage law offices to conserve energy and resources, and to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. The goal is for participating law firms to operate more sustainably and to help slow the progress of global climate change.

Law offices can meet the Climate Challenge by participating in any (or all) of four ways:

1 Reducing paper usage, increasing recycled content of paper used, or increasing recycling.

2 Participate in the EPA’s WasteWise program, which encourages organizations to save energy by reducing waste.

3 Participate in the EPA’s Green Power Partnership program by purchasing at least some of their electricity from renewable sources.

4 Participate in EPA’s Energy Star program, which encourages law offices to reduce energy use by at least 10 percent. This can be accomplished by buying Energy Star–designated heating and cooling equipment or by implementing conservation practices.

The four recommendations focus on areas where law firms tend to be the most wasteful—and where their efforts to change can make the greatest impact.

As of early December 2008, several hundred offices of more than 100 law firms, law schools, corporate legal departments, consultancies, government offices, and state agencies had signed onto the challenge. New groups join nearly every week, says Daniel Eisenberg, an associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Beveridge & Diamond, PC, and public service chair for the air quality section of the ABA’s environment, energy, and resources committee. Two of the adherents, so far, have been Minnesota firms.