Two of our fundamental beliefs are to create a better society and to be helpful, for these principles to hold true, they have to extend to our community and environment. Which is why Michalsons takes environmental responsibility very seriously.
We believe that it’s our duty to take responsibility for our impact as well as work towards a greener, more sustainable world. Which is why we’ve put together a sustainability committee. The committee’s job is to research and implement positive, environmentally friendly, changes to our working environment.
Recycling
We started small by introducing recycling bins to the office so that any paper, glass, plastic and tin is recycled by Oasis Recycling, who not only help us contribute to environmental change but who support our community by providing work to young people and adults with intellectual disabilities.
Because we’re an office, we also produce electronic waste like old PC’s, monitors, keyboards, and cables. The danger of simply throwing these devices into landfills is that the chemicals they carry leech into the ground, water, and air. With that in mind, we’ve taken to disposing of electronic waste through E-waste SA, who have the tools to manage these chemicals.
Paperless workflow
As a law firm, we focus on the digital, meaning there’s an inherently ‘green’ nature to the way we work and communicate. All of our work takes place online meaning we mostly work and collaborate on Google Suite and communicate via email, Skype, and Zoom. In fact, we love the digital realm so much that we’ve written posts about why we love online meetings.
A great benefit of working online is that it allows us to use the distributed working model, meaning our team can work from anywhere on any day. This means less travel-related CO2 and ultimately, less paper exchanging hands. If everything is online, in one common place, then there is no need to print it.
Law firms are notorious paper users, but with our distributed model in place, printing large quantities just doesn’t align with who we are, how we work, and our environmental goals. We’d love to say that we’re totally paperless, but occasionally the odd legal document needs to be printed, in which case our goal is to use HotInk (a carbon-neutral and environmentally minded printer) and Minuteman Press Westlake (who offer the option of printing on recycled paper).
Even servers contribute to pollution
It’s interesting to know that working online isn’t a carbon-neutral activity. In fact, 2% of the world’s CO2 emissions come from data centres. Data centres are where multiple servers are stored. We need these servers to keep business online but in order to work without interruption, they need a lot of power and electricity to work effectively. To combat this, we’re pairing with Xneelo who keep their data centres cool, which means less electricity and therefore less environmental waste.
Travel and the big CO2
As you know, we love using Zoom for meetings and keep travel to a minimum, but there are instances where we need to meet face-to-face. In these cases, we’ll either drive or fly to our destination. As a result, we’re working with Credible Carbon who are helping us offset our carbon footprint. Together, we’ve calculated how much CO2 we expend through travel and then make an equal financial contribution to projects that help reduce or avoid carbon in developing countries. We chose the uMdoni project. Our offset assisted in financing cooking stoves and bioethanol gel (a by-product of the local sugarcane industry) that households use to displace coal, wood, paraffin and dung when cooking. This shift not only cuts greenhouse gas emissions but reduces deforestation, indoor air pollution and fire risk.
We’re invested in doing as much as we can for this cause, so if you have any suggestions please let us know! And you can read more about sustainability and social responsibility at Michalsons.
