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Environmental commitmentThe firm has had a real concern about the environment for many years. We provide significant pro bono assistance to people and organisations working to protect the natural world. Two of our longest standing pro bono clients are WWF Australia and Bush Heritage Australia. Our concern for the environment is not limited to the pro bono advice we give to others but must be lived ourselves as a firm. Over many years, Allens Arthur Robinson has sought to reduce its effect on the environment, and to engage our partners and staff in the process. Last year saw a major step forward with the formation of the Allens Arthur Robinson Footprint Committee. The Footprint Committee was formed with a simple aim: to reduce our environmental footprint as much as possible in a co-ordinated way. We have been looking at all aspects of our daily business life to minimise our resource usage (inputs), select the most environmentally friendly inputs, and through recycling and the environmentally sensitive disposal of waste (outputs). Since 2003, we have been rolling out printers that can print double-sided. Now that the rollout is complete, double-sided printing is used as the default setting across all our Australian offices. In just one month, this saved 2.2 million pieces of paper. The paper saved in that month, if stacked, would be far taller than any of the firm's Australian office towers and the paper saved in a year would make a stack as high as Mt Kosciusko. The Footprint Committee works to engage all parts of the firm. This co-ordinated approach results in far better outcomes than our previous ad hoc approach. One example is the move to compulsory electronic (rather than paper) filing across all our departments. We needed IT and risk management assistance with that process to ensure the integrity of our filing system. We have also introduced a competition between the Australian offices to see which office can reduce paper usage the most. This paper reduction not only reduces our demand for wood pulp, but also reduces our 'environment rucksack' - the greenhouse gas emissions emitted and other resources used in the production, trucking and recycling processes. The environmental ripple effect of our actions is often not understood, as it is not necessarily visible. We are now looking at everything we do: from meeting rooms where water jugs have replaced bottled water, to seminar rooms, where guests now receive pads with only a few sheets of paper and pens with a high cardboard component, to offices where computers are being switched off each night, rather than left on standby, and our movement-sensitive lights have been made even more effective. Not even the bathrooms escape scrutiny, with the Sydney office introducing waterless urinals, each of which saves the equivalent of two suburban swimming pools of water a year. At the time of writing, the firm is analysing the results of an online survey of Sydney staff examining environmental and work practices and attitudes, to work out the Footprint Committee's next projects. This survey had a fantastic 41 per cent response rate, underlining the great interest our staff have in environmental initiatives. Allens Arthur Robinson was a proud supporter of the Earth Hour campaign promoted by WWF Australia. Like thousands of businesses and homes across Sydney, our office turned off its lights for one hour as a symbol that it is possible for all of us to take action on global warming. It was a simple action reinforcing the firm's message that we care about reducing the size of our environmental footprint. These initiatives do not just occur within the office. Through firm-wide staff awareness campaigns, the Footprint Committee hopes its actions will translate to environmentally friendly practices among our staff outside the workplace. And our procurement policies will help to promote the development of greener products. The firm's Footprint Committee currently operates nationally. In due course, we will extend its reach to our offshore offices. We believe that Allens Arthur Robinson is a leader among Australian legal firms in taking these and other steps to reduce our environmental impact and we hope to inspire change across the legal sector. For more information about the Footprint Committee, please contact Susan.Pestana@aar.com.au. You can download the pdf version of our Community Commitment brochure (2MB). [Allens in the community: Introduction] 
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