It's now four months into our Sustainability Policy at Andersons Solicitors. For those not in
the know, after much deliberation and a load of research, we
launched a Sustainability Policy from 1 July 2011. See our
Facebook launch back then.
And yes, we're proud of our efforts to date. As we said
then, we're not professing to be the "number 1" sustainable
business or even law firm in Australia, but we've started.
With the wise words of Planet Ark co-founder Jon Dee on the tip of
our tongues, we simply started with the notion, 'DO
SOMETHING'.
As a group of people we believe we have a responsibility to do
whatever we can to help our environment. We've felt this way for a
while and we had been greening our operations in a lot of quiet
ways without beating our chest about it.
All our staff are actively involved and we're recycling anything
and everything from batteries, to mobiles to Christmas cards.
Amongst other initiatives, we've also addressed our internal and
external printing needs and our paper sources. For anything we use,
we review whether we need to use it and if we do, we review how we
use it. Being green... it's the law at Andersons.
We'd love to share with you, what's expected at Andersons, with
this little extract from our policy
1.Shutdown PC's
All PC's and monitors should be shut down at the end of the
working day, not just left in "standby" or "sleep" mode.
Please ensure you encourage and remind staff in your area to do
this.
2.Comingle Bin
A comingle bin is a bin provided by our paper recycling company
for cardboard, milk cartons and a mixture of card, hard plastic and
metal recyclable object.
In addition to the large 240 litre bin, each kitchen area on other
floors and in other offices has been provided with two smaller
bins; one for rubbish and one for comingle recycling.
3.Secure Paper Bins
We already have secure paper recycling bins in all offices.
These will be retained but should be used for ALL paper recycling,
not just secure paper recycling.
The rubbish bin at your desk should not contain any paper. A small
second bin has been provided to at every desk discarded paper and
it can be transferred to the large secure bins when full
4.Duplex Printing
We encourage, wherever appropriate, duplex printing to stand alone
printers and to our multi-function-centre photocopiers.
5.Recycle Photocopier
Cartridges
Copier rooms have a recycle box for these cartridges.
6.Mobile Phones
We have provided a Planet Ark bin for recycling old mobile phones
and PDA's from home, friends and family.
7.Batteries
We have provided a Planet Ark bin for recycling old batteries from
home, friends and family.
8.Christmas Cards
At Christmas time we will provide a Planet Ark box for old
Christmas card recycling.
9.Lights off
We encourage all lights to be turned off either when the room is
not in regular use or at the end of the working day. We've
printed a "remember to switch your lights off sign" for every light
in every offices and at every Andersons location.
10.Stationery Review
We've done a lot of research on "green" paper. We've taken
into account the total supply chain, the "food miles" and the
quality of the paper. We've selected a new brand of paper
from 10% wheat pulp and it has been tested on our printers and
copiers. We will undertake a review of our other stationery
purchasing shortly to ensure, where practicable, we're using
"green" supplies.
11.Signage
To remind all our staff of our new sustainability targets, we've
had fun yet informational signs made to prompt our staff to "think
green". These have been installed across all our
offices.
For more information on Andersons Solicitors, please come and see
us on the web or visit us at any of our office locations.