Cooper Grace Ward Lawyers partners with ecoBiz

Cooper Grace Ward Lawyers is proud to announce its recent partnership with ecoBiz, the Department of Environment and Resource Management’s eco-efficiency partnership program. ecoBiz provides a structured program to help businesses make environmental and financial savings by implementing eco-efficient business practices.

Cooper Grace Ward Managing Partner Chris Ward said he was delighted with the partnership which further highlighted the firm’s commitment to the environment and the stringent initiatives it has gone through to reduce its carbon footprint.

“Our partnership with ecoBiz further cements our sustainability focus and dedication to conducting business in an environmentally responsible way”, Mr Ward said.

Some of the initiatives the firm has undertaken to achieve this carbon footprint reduction include:

• Moving to a 5-star green star rated building
• Implementing more efficient lighting, with motion sensor activation in all public areas
• Purchasing more efficient white goods
• Installing 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
• Replacing printers and faxes with fewer, larger MFDs. These have been reprogrammed to go into sleep mode after 90 minutes rather than the standard 4 hours – this simple change is estimated to save more than 200kg of CO2e pa.
• Reducing the number of office vending machines by half
• Implementing bokashi bins in all tea points and kitchens which diverts approximately 400kg of food scraps from landfill each year
• Reducing the number of newspapers purchased each day
• Introducing swipe release printing to minimise the amount of ‘accidental’ printing
• Providing comprehensive recycling facilities for spectacles, phones, books, batteries and CDs.

The results are impressive and indicative of the changes that have been made to improve efficiency and reduce impact on the environment. Chris Ward is proud of the results which include energy savings of 12% (equivalent to three households), GHG emission savings of 12% (equivalent to taking 13 cars off the road), waste reduction of 52% equalling 2.34 tonnes, an increase in recycling of 32% equalling 2.27 tonnes.

“To compound these dramatic improvements Cooper Grace Ward has also saved $11,414 in costs per annum, which is an additional bonus”, Mr Ward said.

The ecoBiz partnership is just one example of the firm’s commitment to environmental sustainability.  Cooper Grace Ward has recently become a member of the Australian Legal Sector Alliance – a collaborative initiative of the legal industry to work together to improve sustainability within law; it has worked to increase its NABERS energy rating from 3 to 4.5, and in April 2011 planted more than 300 plants in an area of vacant land along the Brisbane River.

“Looking ahead the firm looks forward to continuing its partnership with ecoBiz, and working with them to develop and deliver strategies that help reduce our carbon footprint, and impact positively on the environment”, Mr Ward said.

For further information please contact Lisa Stockwell, Manager – People and Culture via 07 3231 2909 or for media enquiries Lara Corbiere, Marketing Advisor via 07 3231 2494.