by Beth Salt | Sep 16, 2025 | LSA Insights, Small business Hub
Quick Wins for a More Sustainable Office
There are many quick and easy ways you can reduce your environmental impact and save money.
How to get started
If the number of options below feels overwhelming, start with a simple, three-step process:
- Measure your footprint: Use the LSA’s Carbon Calculator to calculate your baseline energy use, waste, and emissions.
- Focus on high-impact areas: Target the biggest sources of waste or emissions revealed by your audit to achieve the most significant results.
- Start small and build momentum: Implement one or two quick wins. As you see the benefits, you can expand your efforts and tackle bigger goals over time.
Recycling/ Resource Use
- Provide glasses and mugs rather than disposable cups
- Limit use of disposable goods e.g. pens, in favour of reusable ones
- Make it easy for staff to recycle as much as possible; paper, card, glass, plastic, aluminium, batteries, old phones
- Take away individual waste bins from desks and replace them with recycling bins
- Compost food waste
- Lengthen the life of toner cartridges by adjusting printer settings to draft quality – and black and white
- Recycle used toner cartridges
- Recycle old computer equipment by giving it to local charities or community groups
- At Christmas, make a donation to charity rather than sending cards
- Use environmentally friendly cleaning products
- Give an active preference to products with minimal packaging and that are locally sourced
- Discourage excessive ordering of stationery by installing a central ordering system
- Use local suppliers/caterers where possible
- Maximise savings by putting up signage reminding staff to save energy and reduce waste
- Fix dripping taps
Paper Use
- Only print when necessary
- Save paper costs by buying 100% recycled paper and reusing discarded paper for notes
- Default printers to print double-sided
- Print internal documents in size 11 font and reduce the borders to 1.5cm
- Inform staff whether agendas and minutes will or won’t be available at meetings to avoid duplication of printing
- Send internal memos electronically
- Use ‘track changes’ to review documents rather than printing
- Cancel junk mail and unwanted publications
- Re-use bubble wrap, boxes and padded envelopes where possible
- Collect and re-use name badges after events and meetings where possible
Energy Use
- Minimise energy costs by ensuring that all equipment and lights are turned off (i.e. not left on standby) when not in use
- Install movement sensors to meeting rooms. Encourage staff to switch off light switches by labelling light switches to indicate which area of th
e office they light. Ask security to check all lights are switched off once the building is empty
- Encourage staff to switch off monitors when away from their desks for more than 5 – 10 minutes and to shut computers down when they leave the office.
- Make sure everyone has a way to turn down the heating, rather than opening a window, to cool the office
- Check that heating is not timed to come on overnight or at weekends
- Turning the heating down by one degree saves 8% of the energy bill a year. The Environment Agency recommends 19 degrees C in the winter and 23 degrees C in the summer is comfortable for most staff
- If extra heating is needed, use oil-fuelled rather than electric fan heaters. They use 750W of energy as opposed to 3kW
- Ensure all light bulbs are energy efficient – LEDs are more efficient than halogen
- Ensure air conditioning vents or heating units are not blocked by office furniture/boxes
- Switch your electricity supplier to a green tariff. Many suppliers will assist in monitoring energy use and promoting reduction
Transport use
- Save time, inconvenience and pollution by using conference calls rather than travelling to meetings where possible
- Provide interest-free season ticket loans
- Use cycle couriers where possible
- Use LPG and/or carbon neutral taxi companies and encourage use of public transport whenever possible by making this easier to book through a central system
- Encourage staff to cycle to work by installing secure bike racks, shower facilities and offering cycle mileage allowance
- Introduce travel policies that reward car sharing
by Beth Salt | Sep 15, 2025 | LSA Insights, Small business Hub
Sustainability for Small Businesses
By Jim Haywood, Managing Director, Woodman Farrow Ltd.
Running a small business in today’s competitive marketplace is a constant challenge. Bills need to be paid and books need to be balanced whilst remaining profitable. Small law firms face many demands on often limited resources – including the time and expertise of colleagues and, of course, finances. When setting out priorities and budget planning, it may be tempting to reduce the focus on sustainability (in all its guises), or even ignore it altogether. Some small businesses may see it as an irrelevance and something that only the bigger players in the market need to worry about. After all, it’s just about compliance with environmental legislation, isn’t it? An understandable view but one missing the opportunities and benefits that sustainability offers firms of all sizes.
Of course, it’s a given that we all must comply with relevant environmental laws – for example, when dealing with waste, discharging anything to watercourses, or in demonstrating the energy efficiency of the business (e.g. via the UK’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting requirement). But being a sustainable business (and demonstrating that you are) is about much more than staying on the right side of the law. It can give your business a critical edge over your competitors as well as putting you in a good position to be a key part of the supply chain of larger companies. It can make you more attractive to lenders and investors and help you recruit and retain committed and engaged staff. Being sustainable can ultimately save you money and improve your bottom line.
The sustainability landscape is changing quickly:
- Around two thirds of investors now take sustainability performance into account[i] – a significant increase in the past few years. They often need to see hard evidence, such as a demonstration that your business meets a standard like the new VSME, the voluntary sustainability reporting standard for SMEs (see below). There is compelling evidence[ii] that companies with top ESG ratings are able to obtain financing on the capital market at significantly lower rates on average (average interest rate ~6.8 %a.) than ESG laggards (7.9 %)
- Companies with a strongly embedded sustainability culture and who ‘walk the talk’ score up to 70% higher on employee engagement than competitors who take the issue less seriously[iii]. They also retain 93% of their employees[iv]
- 80% of Gen Y/Z now expect companies to actively protect the environment[v]. Those who clearly do not can suffer serious consumer backlash. (Just think of the bad press and reputational damage suffered by fast fashion brands such as Boohoo)
- Sustainable products are in increasingly high demand from customers. (For example, Unilever’s purpose-led ‘Sustainable Living’ brands grew 69% faster than the rest of their portfolio in 2019)[vi]. Thinking and acting sustainably can open market opportunities (with both end consumers and B2B customers). This also helps promote innovation and efficiency, particularly for nimble and proactive small firms
- As energy prices increase (and security of supply becomes more uncertain), cutting energy through efficiencies and thoughtful use of power not only helps to reduce a dependence on grid supplied electricity but also helps cut carbon as well as saving money. It is estimated that the average SME could reduce energy bills by 18-25% by making energy improvements[vii] (such as installing solar panels with battery storage, changing out old lighting for LEDs, draught-proofing windows and doors, replacing old heating systems with more sustainable options (e.g. Air Source Heat Pumps), etc.)
Small law firms who respond positively and seize the many opportunities presented by embedding sustainability into their organisation are more likely to be the survivors in the competitive marketplace. Despite the possible up-front costs (for example, installing more energy-efficient equipment), becoming a sustainable business is a win-win situation. Experience shows that the ROI on expenditure which improves the sustainability of the business is worth the investment, particularly given the wider business benefits. (For example, there is usually a 4-5 year payback on the average solar panel installation (30kWp) for SMEs)[viii].
Finally, don’t forget the opportunity to highlight your own business’s commitment and progress with becoming a sustainable firm. If your firm has fewer than 250 employees, the newly introduced voluntary sustainability reporting standard (VSME) for non-listed SMEs requires a company to provide relevant information about its impacts on people and the environment, and the effects of environmental and social issues on its financial position, performance and cash flows in the short, medium, or long term. The standard is likely to attract the attention of B2B customers, lenders and other key stakeholders. They will be looking to see who adopts it; meeting the requirements is likely to become an expectation for doing business in the supply chain.
Not engaging with sustainability could leave you out in the cold. Not embedding it into all aspects of your business could, quite simply, put you out of business.
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[i] Cse-net.org
[ii] MSCI
[iii] Gallup
[iv] WeSpire
[v] psico-smart.com
[vi] Unilever
[vii] UK Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC)
[viii] heatable.co.uk
by Beth Salt | Mar 31, 2025 | LSA Insights
Embedding Environmental Training in Law Firms – the Freshfields story
Law firms put environmental policies in place to help them measure and reduce their emissions – but why use valuable time and resources training staff about them?
We asked Mikey Bloxham, Environment Manager at Freshfields, which is directing its colleagues to undertake a mandatory education module on environmental topics.
Over 2025, the firm will roll out a global training module that is compulsory for all staff, partners and new joiners. This will be followed by a requirement to annually update knowledge.
“We understand the need to keep colleagues informed of work we are doing across the environment function for a number of reasons. Firstly, we want to help everyone understand why they are being asked to commit to practices that will reduce our emissions – for example, adopting to paperless working, adhering to the firm’s smart travel policy, turning their computer off at the end of the day, and correctly segregating any waste, amongst other things. We were also keen to keep colleagues up to speed with our climate action (offsetting) initiative and how we ensure that the project maintains integrity. Informed people are more likely to engage and take action. Lastly but also incredibly important, our lawyers now have these great talking points with clients.
“This is not only about existing employees, many of our new joiners, work experience students and scholarship candidates are asking us what we are doing in the environmental sustainability space. This is an important topic for people.”
The firm has set itself a number of targets to achieve, including a 35% reduction in business travel-related emissions by 2027, and 100% renewable electricity supply to all offices by 2030, with these and other targets validated by SBTi. The environment team at Freshfields feel that education about the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of these targets will help galvanise employees and ensure their success.
Securing buy-in from senior leadership, including all regional COOs, has been crucial to the success of this upskilling, as was the need to create a standard module that functions internationally. This was a decision which inevitably presented challenges, with climate policies impacting regions in different ways. For instance, restrictions on business travel have a markedly different effect on Freshfields offices in Asia, compared to those in the UK. However, as collaboration is a cornerstone of effective climate action, Freshfields recognized the importance of adopting a unified, firmwide approach.
Education remains our most powerful tool, and engaging, empowering and informing colleagues and clients on how and why to take climate action will be a vital ingredient in the legal sector’s transition to net zero. If you are interested in finding out more about Freshfield’s training module then please get in touch here, the firm are happy to share the details of their experience in setting this initiative up. The LSA can organise an event/webinar to explore this area further if there is interest, please let us know.
Freshfields teams perform a river clean up in Tokyo and a beach clean up in Hong Kong, steered by the global green group.
by Beth Salt | Feb 24, 2025 | LSA Insights
Empowering Action – How to start an environment and sustainability team in your law firm.
By Lauren Spencer, Manager at Fragomen.
Before diving into the steps for starting an Environment and Sustainability Team, or ‘green team’, it’s important to define what a green team is.
At Fragomen, our green team began in our UK office when a group of employees passionate about sustainability came together to explore ways to make our office more eco-friendly. That’s exactly what a green team is – a group of like-minded employees working towards a shared goal of creating a more sustainable workplace.
So, how can you start a green team in your organisation?
- Find interested team members
Start by gathering colleagues who share an interest in sustainability. Spread the word in a way that suits your workplace – send out an email, post on internal communication channels or even put up a poster (just remember to recycle it afterwards!).
If initial responses are low, you may need to take a more active approach. Speak with colleagues, bring it up in team meetings or ask managers to nominate a representative from their department. Having a diverse team with members from different areas of the company is key to making a greater impact.
Key departments to involve:
- Office Services and Facilities: They can drive change by choosing eco-friendly suppliers and improving energy efficiency
- Finance: Sustainability efforts often involve budget considerations, and having finance onboard can help secure funding for green initiatives
A well-rounded team ensures that sustainability becomes a company-wide initiative rather than a niche interest.
- Start Small
Once the team is in place, use your first meeting to brainstorm quick, achievable wins. What small changes require minimal cost and effort?
At Fragomen, our first steps involved reviewing office consumables and making eco-friendly swaps. We switched to eco-friendly toilet paper, eco-friendly cleaning supplies, ethical tea and coffee brands, recycled printer paper, and greener stationery suppliers. Once this conversation starts, you’ll find endless opportunities for improvement.
Starting with small, visible changes build momentum. When employees see the results-such as greener products in the office- it creates excitement and encourages wider engagement.
To maintain momentum, schedule regular meetings (monthly or bimonthly) and set a structured agenda. This keeps your team focused and ensures meaningful progress towards sustainability goals.
- Educate and Engage Employees
A green team’s impact grows when the wider workforce gets involved. The more employees connect with sustainability efforts, the more likely they are to adopt eco-friendly habits in their daily lives.
Interactive events and hands-on activities are among the best ways to engage colleagues.
At Fragomen, we hosted:
- Workshops on eco-friendly Christmas decorations: Teaching employees how to create sustainable Christmas decorations using recycled materials
- Clothes swap shops: Encouraging staff to refresh their wardrobe sustainably by swapping clothes instead of buying new ones
- Halloween costume swaps for colleagues’ children: Helping parents reduce waste and save money by exchanging pre-loved costumes
- Volunteering days – Giving employees opportunities to support community gardens and local woodlands
- Plants in the office: Bringing greenery into the office and promoting plant-based well-being
- Seasonal events: Consider running themed events or monthly challenges to keep employees engaged year-round. Whether it’s a ‘Plastic Free July’ challenge or a lunchtime sustainability talk, small efforts help foster an eco-friendly culture
- Engage Senior Leadership
Securing senior leadership involvement is crucial for a green team to gain traction. Leadership advocates ensure sustainability initiatives are taken seriously and integrated into broader company goals. Without top-down support, green teams often struggle to gain momentum, as great ideas risk being overlooked or deprioritised. Engaging leadership early helps teams drive meaningful change with the backing needed to turn ideas into action.
- Measure Success and Keep Growing
Track progress by setting measurable goals and celebrating achievements. Recognising success keeps motivation high and encourages long-term commitment from employees.
The Road to Green Teams
Starting a green team is a powerful way to make a difference in your workplace. With the right support, a clear vision and a team of passionate individuals, you can drive meaningful change and create a more sustainable work environment.
Fragomen is a global immigration firm with nearly 6,000 professionals and support staff across more than 60 offices worldwide.
by Beth Salt | Dec 9, 2024 | LSA Insights
An interview with Maria Nefeli Bernitsa, Partner at Bernitsas Law, about lawyering on the front lines of a climate crisis and climate-conscious lawyering.
Clara Douglas: How does being a Greece-based firm influence your choice to pursue sustainability?
Maria Nefeli: Greece comes face to face with the consequences of climate change every year. Several times this summer, people had to evacuate their loved ones or pets and check on their properties because a wildfire was approaching their homes. There were days when the sky around the office would be black and orange from particulates from the fires. Flash floods are also becoming a common phenomenon. So, I think that sustainability is more than an academic discussion for us and prioritising environmental considerations and actions is a necessity.
Athens at sunset
Clara: Why did you decide to join the LSA?
Maria Nefeli: The LSA is an organisation whose values align with many internal conversations we have had for many years. Managing our business responsibly is the foundation on which the firm has achieved sustainable growth over the years. Commercial success for our firm has always been contingent on the personal success of our clients, our people and the broader community. Therefore, our firm’s ethos naturally mapped onto emerging discussions about ESG. Membership of the LSA allows us to benchmark our ESG performance and initiatives with the international legal industry standards and to join a community of firms committed to being part of the solution.
Clara: What has Bernitsas Law been doing so far to become more sustainable?
Maria Nefeli: Like many firms, we first looked inward and identified the key environmental impacts of our business. We are continuously working towards minimising our environmental footprint. Initiatives have included making our building more environmentally sustainable, upgrading our waste management system and raising awareness. We have been running training programs on how to recycle effectively, with great results and immediate results in our recycling outcomes, as well as on first aid and CPR. Gathering information for our Sustainability Report has been very rewarding as it presents a consolidated view of everything we have been doing, from responsible business and governance practices, initiatives taken for our community made up of our people, the society in which we work and our clients, and of course our environmental commitments.
Clara: Has your sustainability journey impacted your client intake and work?
Maria Nefeli: As far as we know, we are the first firm in Greece to have a dedicated ESG department and lawyers across several departments advise on ESG issues in their areas of expertise. This means that throughout the firm, ESG principles are adopted and considered early on in new projects and consistently throughout. While it is difficult to measure whether client intake has grown as a result of our approach to sustainability alone, it is certainly true that clients are interested both in what we do as an organisation, but also how we can help them reach their ESG goals.
Clara: What are the main challenges you have faced on your sustainability journey, and how did you overcome them?
Maria Nefeli: One challenge we had is that we are based in a historic building in the center of Athens and making structural changes which would lead to it being more energy efficient is difficult due to strict building codes. We have made and continue to make significant investments in adaptations to improve the environmental performance of the building, including installing energy efficient lighting, air conditioning and windows. Our location is an advantage as we are in walking distance of many of our clients and very short trips to the courts and central government offices, which impacts our travel emissions positively. We also implement an almost complete power down every night and over the weekends, which benefits our neighborhood and is a significant win in terms of energy consumption. Rather than relocating to a new building, we are committed to being part of the effort to make historic buildings more sustainable and feel that in this way, we are working within our community to help improve energy efficiency on a city-wide level.
Clara: With many law firms opting to relocate their premises to be more energy efficient, I have yet to consider whether this does not necessarily reduce emissions on a systemic level. It is great to see how a firm approaches this challenge in a way that could benefit the city.
Maria Nefeli: Well, a key part of our approach and what is required for a just and fair transition is that people and businesses are “good neighbours”, so it feels right to consider community-wide changes.
Clara: How do clients feel about the firm taking a more sustainable approach?
Maria Nefeli: Many of our clients seek our advice in making their disclosures and we have a demonstrated expertise in structuring compliance models. I think that advising our clients on how best to achieve their sustainability goals must go hand in hand with a clear message on what our sustainability goals are and what we do to achieve them.
Clara: What do you wish lawyers knew about climate change?
Maria Nefeli: I think we are now at a stage where lawyers are aware of the importance of climate change and that environmental action is part of the agenda of the majority of law firms. Achieving sustainability goals is always a work in progress and I am not sure that I can provide any insight, other than to say that collective action and awareness through an organisation like the LSA is probably more impactful in the long run. Being part of the solution means playing the long-game and creating the structure for durable and resilient outcomes.
Clara: What do you wish lawyers would do?
Maria Nefeli: Again, I think that the legal profession in general has made huge strides in the right direction over the last years. Lawyers are in a position to really assist their clients in achieving their sustainability goals and to advise effectively on the fantastic and financially viable opportunities for transactions and projects in the green space.
Sustainability can be complex and challenging for lawyers and their clients, but I think we can contribute in a meaningful way to the goals which have been set for 2030 and beyond by approaching the advice we give our clients and the management of our own firms with integrity. The first wave of ESG regulation took the form of disclosures, but this mustn’t be where sustainability stops. Disclosures help make people accountable and force them to take action but are the first step to identifying the issue before setting goals to really address the problem.
Clara: What is next for Bernitsas?
Maria Nefeli: We have a number of exciting environmental initiatives coming up this year and are committed to enhancing our performance and ensuring that we measure our progress in a meaningful way.
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Maria Nefeli specialises in financial services and ESG law, with a focus on high impact legislative changes, capital markets transactions and corporate transactions for listed companies. Find out more about Bernitsas Law here. Maria Nefeli heads up the Firm’s Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) department, and advises extensively on ESG legislation with a focus on the laws affecting firms in the financial services sector.
by tess | May 17, 2024 | LSA Insights
Some surprisingly small changes that will make a big difference to your carbon impact to mark World Environment Day 2024.
Click for trees
Switch your browser. It is easy. Ecosia is a not-for-profit search engine that has planted over 206 million trees to date, with high monitoring requirements for all projects. Germany’s first B-Corps allocates 100% of profits to fighting climate change and environmental injustice; with 80% dedicated to tree planting projects and the other 20% invested in renewable energy, regenerative agriculture and grassroots activism.
Ecosia is a steward-owned company, meaning shares can’t be sold at a profit or owned by people outside of the company and no profits can be taken out of the company.
The search engine is powered by the Our Google and Bing algorithm, so whilst your results might not be as numerous as Google, they will likely be good enough to get you where you want to go. And you don’t need to worry about privacy, Ecosia is more privacy conscious than Google. You easily switch through an add on in Google Chrome and Safari for iOS 14. Other browsers that include an option to search with Ecosia include Adblock Browser, Maxthon, and Brave, or just simply download the browser.
Another green hack is to book your trains with Trainhugger. Also a B-Corps, Trainhugger contribute approximately a quarter of revenue to restoring the UK’s natural world, aiming to double UK woodland cover from 13% to 26% by 2025. Working in partnership with the Royal Forestry Society, they promise to plant a tree for every booking.
Like other major platforms, they support split-ticketing to save your budget and have a clean and fast interface, however, Trainhugger charges a flat booking fee of £1.50, of which £0.50 will go towards tree planting, which can make it more expensive than other platforms. For example, Trainline’s fees, based on your chosen journey, the ticket price, and when you’re booking, will currently vary between a minimum of 59p and a maximum of £2.79.
Garden game changers
Ditch the rhododendrons for the foxgloves, lily of the valley and hellebores!
Plant native species to support biodiversity. Plants, animals and insects depend on each other, but most insects will not eat non-native plants, so replace them and you’ll literally be feeding an ecosystem.
Native species will be far more resilient and require less resources, being well-adapted to the local climate, soil and other environmental conditions – using less water, no pesticides and be more resistant to local diseases.
What’s more, many native plants have deep root systems that help to improve soil structure, prevent erosion, and promote water infiltration, adding organic matter to improve your soil quality.
And while we are on gardens, if you have to water your garden during hot spells, do it in the evening to minimise evaporation and make the most of your water!
Keep the planet in mind when queueing for your sandwich
All food needs to be grown and processed, transported, distributed, prepared, consumed, and sometimes disposed of and every step of that journey creates CO2. We know you have heard it all before, but about a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions is linked to food. You don’t need to go vegan, but what you eat is much more important to your footprint than how far that food has travelled or how much packaging it has.
Transport and packaging typically account for only a small fraction of foods’ greenhouse gas emission, and although single use plastic is clearly to be avoided when possible, when it comes to CO2 the production of the food is key, with red meat and shellfish the biggest offenders.
So, if you are trying to choose between that bean burrito or a prawn mayo wrap, putting the planet into the mix will make all the difference.
Make your money matter 
Switch your pension to a fund that supports the planet. The UK has £3 trillion in pensions, some of which is invested in companies driving deforestation and funding fossil fuels. For every £10 you put in your pension, £2 is linked to deforestation. Check out Make My Money Matter, an organisation founded to help you green your money which has ranked the top 20 UK pension providers on their climate plans.
Tweak the heat
Two easy wins: make sure you turn the heating OFF in the summer, rather than just turning the thermostat down, or your central heating system’s pump will remain running, consuming energy. To avoid this, choose the ‘hot water only’ setting.
While you are at it, switch off all appliances, rather than leaving them on standby. Any why not, in the winter, turn that thermostat down by a degree and grab a nice knit to cosy up with.
Making sure your fridges at home and in the office are at the recommended temperatures, rather than too cold, will also reduce your energy consumption every second of every day. The greenest energy is the energy that we don’t use!
