Allen & Overy - ISO 14001
Committing to meet international standards for the firm’s environmental management system, Allen & Overy has taken the first steps and is now in the final stages of achieving ISO14001 certification.
As an international law firm, Allen & Overy recognises the importance of the environmental impacts of the firm and in upholding international standards on such impacts. A review of the firm’s Environmental Management System (EMS) – a structured framework for managing an organisation’s significant environmental impacts – highlighted the need for an EMS which was more closely aligned with common international standards.
In order to achieve this, we decided to go for ISO14001 certification; an internationally recognised standard for environmental management.
We used a four-step process on our journey to ISO14001. The first step was an Initial Environmental Review (IER) in order to assess the baseline performance. Commissioned by an external environmental consultancy; the objectives of the Review were to:
• Identify the aspects of our activities and services that have an impact on the environment
• Ensure that the areas in which the firm has a significant impact on the environment are the focus of our Environmental Policy and the basis upon which we develop and implement our Environmental Management System.
The Review was conducted in Allen & Overy's London office and focused on day-to-day operations and support services. The methodology employed in the review included site visits, interviews with key staff, review of documents and analysis of previous studies undertaken.
The second step was a Global Environment Audit in order to develop a global environmental strategy that addresses the areas in which operations have a significant environmental impact (e.g. energy use, business travel, waste production and recycling, environmental initiatives), using a structured process for internal communications and training, measurement and reduction. The three scoping areas of the audit were to:
• Develop an understanding of the current environmental performance of Allen & Overy offices worldwide
• Develop a baseline for several key environmental parameters upon which we can measure
• Set targets for improvement in the future and measure the carbon footprint associated with the firm’s global operations.
Following the completion of the review, the third step was a complete a review of the EMS to ensure that all aspects of ISO 14001 were covered and that adequate controls were in place to comply with the Standard. There were five key requirements for the review:
• Create systems procedures in order to align environmental requirements with business operation (e.g. procurements, document control, waste management, evaluation of compliance)
• Create operational procedures in order to control significant environmental aspects and impacts (e.g. monitoring and management of procurement, storage and use of consumables, monitoring and management of energy).
• Establish a team of internal Environmental Champions in order to provide assistance with the creation of internal promotional materials and to promote environmental initiatives within their business groups.
• Establish internal Environmental Auditors in order to verify contents of the EMS, undertake audits of the significant aspects and impacts and to ensure that non-conformances are addressed accordingly.
• Create an EMS Improvement Plan in order to capture and address the various improvement objectives that will present themselves over the coming years (including all of the recommendations from the Review and Audit).
The next step in the process is to appoint an external verifier. The role of the external verifier is to undertake a review of the Environmental Management system in order to confirm compliance with the ISO 14001 Standard. A report will be produced identifying improvements required and a window provided in order to implement the stated improvements (approximately three months).
In regards to project scope, it is important to scope projects correctly from the outset in order to ensure all relevant information is gathered.
It is difficult to compare findings with similar organizations, due to the lack of transparency or consistency of how others calculate their figures (i.e. it is important to understand what is included or excluded) and to ensure we get this right first time in order to provide comparisons over time. The work of the Legal Sector Alliance will improve this, as an industry benchmark tool is being developed to measure carbon footprints (i.e. detailing what is measured and what is not measured). However, it may still be difficult to make strong comparisons due to the vast difference in organisations (size, premises complexity etc.).
• Findings of the IER were positive and provided feedback on areas that will have an influence on the Environmental Management System (management commitment, environmental performance, improvement initiatives, policies, procedures etc.)
• Recommendations for improvements from the IER have been included within the Environmental Improvement Plan.
• The recommendations of the GEA report were again documented and have been included within the Environmental Improvement Plan.
• Allen & Overy is progressing with the initiatives of the EMS and is drafting and implementing the necessary policies and procedures.