DLA Piper's Global Sustainability Initiative

DLA Piper's global footprint can be felt not only in how we deliver the best legal services to our clients, but also in our commitment to building a healthier planet for future generations. The value we place on giving back to the communities in which we work and live inspired us to be one of the very first legal services providers to launch a global sustainability initiative.

Our Commitment

Our comprehensive campaign, launched January 2007, is focused on ways to responsibly reduce the impact of our business operations on the environment. It includes three features:

• Certification of compliance to ISO 14001:2004, a globally accepted standard for environmental management that will measure our commitment to the environment
• Reduction of greenhouse emissions through more efficient business travel and the purchase of carbon offsets for certain unavoidable travel.
• Setting of carbon emissions reduction targets in the impact areas of energy, waste, travel and procurement; and the implementation of a comprehensive set of measures designed to achieve these targets.

In order to ensure we meet our sustainability goals, we regularly measure our progress against the targets listed below. We will set new and more challenging targets annually.

Our commitment is shared throughout the firm's global operations. We believe that the influence of everyone's collective efforts at work will lead to more sustainable actions in the homes and lives of our 8,000-plus attorneys and staff professionals around the world. In addition, we approach our commitment as a living strategy that will change and adapt as we respond to the demands and challenges of creating a more sustainable business.

Our Sustainability in Action
Listed below are some of the advances that we have made during the first year of our Global Sustainability Initiative. We continue to look for ways to enhance our efforts in the coming years.

ISO 14001:2004 Accreditation
In 2007, DLA Piper became the first global legal services provider to achieve ISO 14001 accreditation across all continents in which we operate. The standard is a globally accepted one for environmental management that measures our commitment to the environment. To achieve compliance, teams across our firm worked to:

• Estabish an environmental management system based on the firm’s global environmental policy statement, which was signed by our Joint CEOs
• Set targets and objectives to reduce energy consumption and paper usage, recycle paper and toner cartridges and purchase "green" energy where available
• Conduct an internal environmental audit in every office
• Facilitated external audits by National Quality Assurance in 20 percent of the offices, with plans for every office to be externally audited in the next five years
• Developed an environmental checklist to ensure we consider our carbon footprint when we open new offices or work on existing ones

New Perimeter Global Warming Project
In 2007, New Perimeter, a nonprofit affiliate of DLA Piper dedicated to international pro bono work, launched a global warming initiative that allows small groups of subsistence farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to use tree planting projects to generate and sell credits to offset greenhouse gas emissions.

Global Environment Week: January 29, 2007: February 2, 2007
As part of the launch of our firmwide Sustainability Initiative, we held a Global Environment Week internally, during which we engaged in a comprehensive range of activities that stimulated and informed our people about the importance of sustainability and our commitment to positive change.

Sheffield Cooling the Planet Conference: February 7, 2007
As a result of our global network, we arranged for former US Vice President Al Gore and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, global chair of DLA Piper, to be the keynote speakers at our "Cooling the Planet Conference" attended by business and political leaders in Sheffield, England.

Business Summit on Climate Change: May 1, 2007
DLA Piper was proud to sponsor the Business Summit on Climate Change hosted by HRH The Prince of Wales, which brought together more than 1,000 top business executives to exchange information, think creatively, and identify steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their own business as well as that of their suppliers and customers.

World Environment Day: June 5, 2007
In June, we participated in World Environment Day, sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme to stimulate global awareness of the environment and enhance political attention and action.

US Partners Conference: September 7 – 9, 2007
We were pleased to hold one of the first "green" partnership conference by a law firm. Held this past September in Scottsdale, Arizona, the conference featured several eco-inspired measures, such as: limited paper use, meals that emphasized local and/or organic ingredients, a venue with its own active sustainability program, recycling, and slideshows and a kiosk featuring the sustainability initiative. Through the firm's normal procedures, all carbon emissions from conference air travel were offset. In addition, DLA Piper made contributions to the Desert Botanical Garden of Phoenix and the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University.

Virtual Global Board Meeting: October 17, 2007
To demonstrate our top-level commitment to sustainability, DLA Piper’s Global Board met "virtually" in October instead of traveling via air to one single location. The meeting was made possible by state-of-the-art meeting technology provided by Cisco and designed to give the impression that the physical meeting room extended virtually to the remote rooms.

Hybrid Vehicle Incentive
In 2007, DLA Piper launched an incentive program to encourage its employees to purchase eco-friendly automobiles. Under the policy, the firm offers $2000 toward the purchase or $1500 toward the lease of a hybrid vehicle for all non-partner attorneys, paralegals, and staff members in the US.

Commuter Benefits Program
Our Commuter Benefits Program allows attorneys and staff to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for work-related transportation expenses, such as bus, train, and subway fares as well as for parking fees.

Alternate Commuting Incentive Program
Our Alternative Commuting Incentive offers $250 to attorneys and staff who change and sustain for at least 60 consecutive days their commuting habits to a manner that is more eco-friendly. Examples of alternate commuting methods include public transportation, vanpooling, carpooling, walking, or riding a bike.

Carpooling Bulletin Board
For our attorneys and staff in the US, the firm has provided space on its Intranet site where people can coordinate carpooling arrangements.

Energy Star Compliance
In 2007, DLA Piper joined ENERGY STAR as a partner and converted computer equipment to be compliant with the program. ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy that helps protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.

Office Initiatives
Our vision for sustainability is global, yet our implementation is local. In addition to our three main sustainability goals, we have focused on simple changes in the way we operate in our various offices, including:

• Instituting a recycling program for bottles, cans, and paper
• Purchasing and using recycled paper
• Recycling 90% of toner cartridges
• Placing new recyclable hospitality products in all pantry and kitchen areas
• Encouraging double-sided printing
• Encouraging people to turn off lights and computers when they leave their work space
• Considering carbon emissions when making travel plans
• Reducing energy consumption in the office

The following additional measures have been taken by individual offices:

• Boston: Janitorial staff are using "green" cleaning products
• Baltimore: New plumbing fixtures are decreasing water usage
• East Palo Alto: Pitchers of water in the conference rooms have replaced bottled water
• Baltimore: Ceramic mugs have replaced disposable cups
• New York: A hybrid car service is available for visitors to the office