I thought I would share a couple thoughts on a webinar that I attended yesterday
called Greening the Law Firm.
First a note about the technology – Shift Worldwide
presented the webinar on their proprietary platform. Actually called a Virtual Panel Discussion it
features the speakers live from their offices / locations on the Virtual
dashboard. From a user standpoint, I thought
it was very slick. And was much more
interesting than the usual slide presentation format.
What caught my eye about this particular vPanel was the
topic. “Green” seems like it went away
for awhile as companies and firms hunkered down and focused on the
economy. It’s heartening to see that
this topic (along with Diversity, Pro Bono and Associate Satisfaction) is
continuing to get attention. Secondly, I
feel like there’s been a perception that “going green” would actually cost more
than what currently being spent in operations, so this was an interesting
twist. Good for the environment and
saves money.
Aside from the usual suggestions on how to make your office
more green, I thought it was interesting how the discussion was framed. i.e. there’s two main drivers to “go
green”.
Client-driven: One
of the panelist’s firms has a large environmental law practice; they wanted to
ensure they could “walk the talk” and provided some good examples of
implementing green practices that clients can see – specifically cups made of
corn, biodegradable spoons, filtration systems to replace bottled water in
conference rooms.
Cost-driven: A firm that removes bottled water from offices
can save approximately $10K. Also
putting permanent dishware in conference rooms, encouraging double-sided
printing, the use of centralized printers, consolidation of data centers,
unified communications, web conferencing, ability to raise conference rooms
walls to best utilize space, have lights shut off after a certain amount of
time/motion sensors. Telecommuting for
attorneys was described as “the wave of the future”. It creates a more attractive situation for
attorneys—billable either way; and it was said studies show people are more
productive at home.
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