Press Release
14 Jan 2008
DLA Piper earns ISO 14001 certification worldwide.
ISO 14001 is a globally recognised standard which guides the development of an auditable environmental management system. ISO 14001 requirements include: establishing an environmental policy; determining the environmental impacts of key processes, activities and services; setting environmental objectives and measurable targets; implementing and operating programmes to meet objectives; and conducting regular management reviews.
DLA Piper is the first global legal services provider to achieve ISO 14001 certification across all its offices worldwide.
"ISO certification will play a critical role in helping the firm actively diagnose and manage its collective impact on the environment moving forward," said Senator George J Mitchell, Chairman of DLA Piper. "As part of our commitment to move beyond basic 'offsetting' efforts, this milestone brings us closer to reducing our impact through an internationally accredited system that also allows the firm to hold itself accountable."
In order to achieve this compliance, DLA Piper teams across the firm completed the following:
- Established an environmental management system based on the firm's global environmental policy statement, which was signed by the Joint CEOs
- Set targets and objectives to reduce energy consumption and paper usage, recycle paper and toner cartridges, and purchase "green" energy where available
- Conducted an internal environmental audit in every office
- Facilitated external audits by NQA, a leading assessment and certification body
- Developed an environmental checklist to ensure the firm considers its environmental impact when opening new offices or renovating existing offices
DLA Piper first achieved ISO 14001 certification for its UK offices in 2004 and is now using the environmental management system across all its offices to make continuous improvements towards sustainability.
Nigel Knowles, Joint CEO at DLA Piper, said: "Achieving ISO 14001 certification has been a huge but worthwhile challenge. The business benefits of employing a robust system to help manage, measure and monitor our impacts is evident and we have already made significant financial savings by using this standard to benchmark our progress in this area. As we go forward I am confident that this standard will help us navigate our way through the many challenges and decisions that we must embrace in order to create a more sustainable global law firm. ISO 14001 is an ideal benchmark for law firms, both large and small, and businesses across all sectors and who want to introduce or further develop sustainable working practices."
DLA Piper's Sustainability Initiative is a business-wide plan designed to actively reduce the impact of its operations on the environment. Launched across all offices worldwide, the Sustainability Initiative includes a commitment to reduce environmental impacts in four areas: energy, waste, business travel and procurement.
View the Source of this press release.
Additional Resources
View the official website for DLA Piper.
Read about DLA Piper and the Mitchell Report at the WSJ law blog.
Read about DLA Piper at SourceWatch.
Read an article from Legal Week about surges in DLA Piper's revenue.
Read about the racial lawsuit filed against DLA Piper that was rejected by a federal judge.