Cooper Grace Ward believes in a positive and ethical community and environmental contribution. We have a history of working in close and active partnership with our community to help share the benefits of our knowledge and success. The sustainability of our environment and our community are at the core of our business and we embrace the opportunities they provide to develop our team.

Community Support

As part of our commitment to our community, the firm supports community programs which enhance and improve welfare, environmental projects or medical research.
During 2010 and 2011, the CGW People + Planet Program has raised funds for one core charity, Youngcare.
We support the Buy1GIVE1 charity programme through our chosen caterers, who contribute a portion of each transaction to the people in the world that need it the most.
We also participate in Club Red, the Australian Red Cross’s blood donation program.

Pro Bono Services

We have a strong commitment to delivering pro bono legal services. We are a member of the Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House (QPILCH), which provides us with the opportunity to contribute to pro bono legal services for disadvantaged members of the community. We also provide pro bono legal services including business structuring and general legal advice to not-for-profit organisations. As a firm we currently provide more than 30 hours' pro bono legal services per month which has included advice to organisations such as:

• Suited to Success 
• Pine Rivers Koala Care Association
• Human Research Ethics Committees - Central Queensland
• Eyetech Day Surgeries
• Melanoma Patients Australia
• Sunshine Coast Youth Partnership
• Schizophrenia Association of Queensland.

In addition, our lawyers contribute their time to various committees within industry associations and educational institutions at no cost, as well as providing lectures and other educational presentations to these entities. We also have several lawyers who assist in free legal clinics for homeless people and disadvantaged members of our community.

Corporate Sustainability

Corporate sustainability is embedded in the way we do business at Cooper Grace Ward and we are committed to reducing our environmental footprint. As such we have already taken the following actions:

• Undertook a NABERS energy assessment in May 2009 (resulting in a result of 3.0) and joined the CitySwitch Green Office programme. We completed another NABERS assessment in January 2011 and received a rating of 4.5.
• Become a member of the Queensland Government’s ecoBiz program
• Reduced our energy consumption by 14% per team member during 2010
• Conduct firm-wide audits of our resource usage
• Review of our stationery supplies, to ensure a reduction of the range carried and an increase in the proportion of environmentally friendly products stocked
• Implementation of our Environmental Sustainability policy, which includes our sustainable purchasing policy
• Installed a purpose built server room which utilises energy efficient in-rack cooling and server virtualisation, resulting in fewer servers needed. The number of servers in use at any point in time varies with the level of demand experienced
• Reduced the length of time for the MFDs to go into standby mode from four hours to 90 minutes - this simple change is estimated to save more than 200kg of CO2e p.a. 
• Establishment of a Sustainability Committee with representatives from all workgroups
• Five seminars to team members during 2010 on environmental sustainability 
• Environmental sustainability included in our team induction program
• Corporate and Social Responsibility is included as an area for performance targets to be set in all workgroup business plans
• Relocated into a five "Green Star" designed building at 400 George Street in October 2009
• Reduction in our landfill waste by providing full recycling facilities at work – over 60% of our waste is now recycled
• In addition to the waste management services offered by the building, we use bokashi bins in our café and catering kitchen to manage our food scraps and we also provide recycling facilities for spectacles, mobile phones, CDs, batteries and books
• Reduced the number of office vending machines by half
• Revegetating a patch of vacant land along the Brisbane River at North Quay
• Provide our team members with access to Go Cards for work journeys where appropriate and Cooper Grace Ward is a corporate supporter of CityCycle.