Law Practice Management
Curtailing the Paper Chase: ‘Green’ Law Firms Cut Paper Waste
Posted Jul 28, 2008, 10:44 am CST
By Martha Neil
In standard practice, a lawyer can use 20,000 to 100,000 pages of copy paper annually. So one focus of "green" law firms seeking to reduce wasted resources is cutting that number down to size.
Conservation techniques include double-sided copying, which is now standard at Jones Day, and using paper made from eucalyptus trees, which are considered a "renewable resource" because they grow very quickly, as Columbus, Ohio-based Porter Wright Morris & Arthur does. More than 90 law firms have signed up for a "climate challenge" conservation effort promoted by the American Bar Association and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reports the Plain Dealer.
Another popular technique is putting materials online or on computer disk, when possible, rather than printing them out in hard-copy form.
"The amount of paper being used is almost crazy," says John Rohyans, a partner at Porter Wright.