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.

Corporate Citizen Program

As part of our commitment to our community, the firm has a Corporate Citizen Program that supports community programs which enhance and improve welfare, environmental projects or medical research.

During 2009, the CGW Corporate Citizen Program has raised funds for two main charities: Youngcare & RSPCA.

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 of 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
• Uniting Health Care
• 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 becoming embedded in the way we do business at CGW.  We are committed to reducing our environmental footprint and are aiming to be carbon neutral by 1 January 2011.  As such we have already taken the following actions:

• Undertaken a NABERS energy assessment in May 2009 and have joined the CitySwitch Green Office programme
• We have become a member of the Queensland Government’s ecoBiz program
• Firm wide audits of our resource usage
• Establishment of a Sustainability Committee with representatives from all workgroups
• Two seminars to team members during 2009 on environmental sustainability and a planned roll-out of an additional five seminars during this financial year
• Environmental sustainability included in our team induction program
• Review of our stationery supplies, resulting in 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
• Virtualisation of our IT servers which has resulted in a significant decrease in energy consumption by our servers, with 10 servers being replaced with 3
• Corporate and Social Responsibility is now included as an area for performance targets to be set in all workgroup business plans
• Relocation into a five "Green Star" designed building at 400 George Street in October 2009.