GROUNDWORK CASE STUDY
SILVER AWARD FOR SHOOSMITHS LLP SUMMARY The Manchester office of national law firm Shoosmiths has recently achieved the Silver award in recognition of its commitment to the Environmental Business Pledge.
THE PROCESS By taking advantage of the support available from the delivery partners, Groundwork MSSTT, Shoosmiths was able to progress to the Silver stage within a year after demonstrating multiple environmental performance improvements.
THE RESULTS ff Energy Monitoring - Shoosmiths monitors its energy usage and associated carbon emissions at all of its facilities. This has encouraged competition throughout the company with performance comparison tables produced and shared. ff Energy Efficiency - The company has undertaken employee awareness campaigns to reduce energy usage. One example of this is the ‘Green Gorilla’ computer shutdown campaign, where PCs that have not been switched off at the end of the working day are marked with a polite sticker highlighting this, resulting in more than 98% of PCs
“Achieving third party recognition of our efforts spurs us on to continue making improvements and finding ways to persuade our colleagues that they play an important role as environmental ambassadors in the workplace and at home.” Nicola Ellen, Corporate Responsibility Director, Shoosmiths LLP
ENVIRONMENTAL BUSINESS SERVICES
Groundwork MSSTT Timber Wharf 42 - 50 Worsley Street Castlefield Manchester M15 4LD Telephone 0161 220 1000 www.groundwork.org.uk/msstt
GROUNDWORK CASE STUDY
being powered down at the end of each working day. The company is a member of the Spinningfields Management Green Group who meet to investigate and share environmental improvement suggestions applicable for the whole building. ff Waste Reduction - As one example of how waste is minimised Shoosmiths partners with EcoPure Waters to bottle filtered water on site. The filtered water uses reusable recycled glass bottles rather than single use containers. In the last twelve months this has avoided the need for 8,227 bottles and has eliminated the need for deliveries and packaging. EcoPure Waters estimate that the refilling practice has helped to save 0.99 tonnes of CO2 emissions for the Manchester site. ff Employee Engagement - As well as engaging employees in site specific initiatives, Shoosmiths has supported a number of national campaigns. During 2013 these have included Climate Week, the Earth Hour campaign and World Environment Day. Employees have been given advice on best environmental practice, the opportunity to make pledges to change their behaviours, volunteer for environmental and other community projects as well as taking part in competitions.
“The EBP has given us at WFEL the opportunity to identify areas of environmental aspects for further improvement as well as helping us to fine tune those already working well to a high standard we strive to attain. Without the help, advice and drive to achieve the awards of the EBP, WFEL wouldn’t have made the progress it has in such a short period of time.”
FUTURE PROSPECTS Shoosmiths LLP will continue to work with Groundwork MSSTT to progress towards the Gold stage
For more information contact: Jonathan Crabtree Business Services Manager Groundwork Environmental Business Services 0161 220 1020 jonathan.crabtree@groundwork.org.uk www.groundwork.org.uk/msstt
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