5 minute read
BAHR’s green shift
by BAHR
By: Karen Elisabeth Hallandvik, Associate
Although the vagaries of 2020 have also affected BAHR’s environmental initiative, our commitment remains strong – maybe stronger than ever. The events of this year have offered new perspectives on vulnerabilities, values and needs. We have been given a powerful reminder of the importance of access to nature, including clean water and fresh air with no need for masks. In addition, we have observed the tremendous restructuring capacity of society, and the opportunities entailed thereby. It is therefore considered even more appropriate than before for climate and environment initiatives to remain a key CSR focus for BAHR in coming years.
BAHR’s environmental initiative started 2020 on the offensive. Numerous welldesigned internal projects to reduce our carbon footprint were launched in 2019 and actively pursued in early 2020. The main emphasis was on our four high-priority focal areas; transport, waste, energy and food. We have identified these as BAHR’s primary emission sources, and will therefore make these our focus when «cleaning up our act».
BAHR as an emission source is
predominantly comprised of our office premises and our ongoing provision of legal services. This includes, for example, how we travel to and from meetings, how we work, what we eat, what products and services we procure, as well as how the office premises are organised and how the waste is managed. In Q1 2020, we gathered detailed statistics on the focal areas and observed with great satisfaction that emissions were declining.
However, BAHR is also the BAHR team members, and the environmental initiative is intended as an arena for professional development and expertise for all employees. This year’s company day, «BAHRcode», was to be dedicated to the environmental initiative, with presentation of structured plans for integrating the environmental perspective into our daily operations. Although this event had to be postponed for infection control reasons, the establishment of an interdisciplinary sustainability group is well underway. The group is expected to be a fully operational BAHR practice group by the end of this year. Solid foundations are already in place; BAHR has this year been at the forefront in advising on greening of the property, aquaculture, shipping and finance industries, to mention but a few.
We want BAHR’s environmental initiative to also motivate BAHR team members and our collaboration partners as individuals. The environmental perspective should be integrated in the choices they make, both at work and outside work. We are convinced that increased facilitation of, and focus on, environmentallyfriendly choices will have positive spillover effects outside BAHR itself.
Status for our internal focal areas
The BREEAM In-Use certification process is ongoing, and BAHR is cooperating closely with KLP as lessor on how to further reduce own consumption. Achievements thus far include coordination of heating and ventilation systems, to make these systems communicate with, and not counteract, each other. Energy savings were 16 percent as at yearend 2019. Ventilation zone control is the next priority for 2020, which is where the main savings are expected.
The food range at BAHR has become much greener, and beef has now been phased out altogether (without anyone having noticed!). There is a focus on local and ecological ingredients. However, the infection situation has had operational repercussions for BAHR’s cafeteria. Prepacked lunches and overtime food require more planning to avoid food waste, etc. This has also resulted in the reintroduction of disposable packaging and cutlery. The total waste volume per employee in the office has therefore increased in the first part of 2020. We have sought to alleviate the consequences of this through stricter source separation guidelines, although these do demand a bit more from each BAHR team member.
In contrast, we have fortunately managed to steeply reduce our paper consumption. The mundane change from simplex to duplex standard printing has from 2017 contributed to reducing our paper consumption by an estimated 55 percent (18 pallets) by the end of 2020, which is equivalent
to 259 trees. Every little helps!
Despite a somewhat negative waste trend, BAHR has definitely reduced its transport-related carbon footprint in both 2019 and thus far this year. BAHR has encouraged all employees to choose alternative transport, both to and from work and when at work. We are pleased that many colleagues are opting for the bicycle as a suitable means of transport, and that this looks set to continue irrespective of the future infection situation. BAHR will therefore be holding quarterly «bicycle days» from now on, in order to facilitate continued cycling by as many colleagues as possible. A bicycle mechanic will provide servicing to all BAHR team members free of charge, and facilitate buying of seasonal accessories. BAHR hopes that this initiative will make it easier to cycle to work, also outside the summer season.
Besides, flights and taxi trips have since March 2020 in large part been replaced by involuntary digitalisation and meetings via Zoom/Skype/Pexip/Teams, and other platforms that many of us had not heard of only six months ago. These trends will contribute to a greener BAHR in the time to come, also when more normal times return.
New external involvement
BAHR does, like virtually all businesses, have a carbon footprint. There is no avoiding that. However, we are conscious of the burden imposed on nature and the environment by BAHR, and we can compensate for those emissions we have not been able to eliminate yet. We have recently embarked on an exciting collaboration with the fairly new Norwegian enterprise Trefadder, which provides «climate compensation» in the form of planting Norwegian forests. Trefadder is responsible for managing the forests to maximise the CO2 sequestration and storage capacity of the trees. The concept is comparable to UN carbon credits, which involves financial support for specific projects that capture or reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such compensation schemes must be based on the premise that the projects would not have come to fruition without said financial support. BAHR is through Trefadder contributing to the planting of trees in areas where the landowner would otherwise have no financial incentive to plant forests. Such areas would thus normally become overgrown with a flora without the same CO2 sequestration capacity as a managed forest. An external analysis of BAHR’s carbon footprint will be conducted in this context, as a supplement to our internal review. This will form the basis for a reliable estimate as to how many CO2 equivalents need to be compensated.
CO2 storage in forests requires a long-term perspective. A commitment to follow-up and transparency is needed on the part of Trefadder, the landowner, as well as BAHR. Our collaboration will therefore include pro bono legal advice from BAHR to Trefadder, as a contribution to the development of a sustainable enterprise built on solid foundations. We look forward to being part of this innovative Norwegian initiative!
BAHR’s Environment Group outside our Tjuvholmen office with three of the BAHR bicycles; (from left) Hilde Fjærtoft Jansen, Karen Elisabeth Hallandvik and Cathrine E. Stornæs
