Wragge & Co

Wragge & Co has taken practical eco-efficient steps and engaged employees on its environmental priorities, resulting in waste reductions and costs savings for the firm.

Wragge & Co is a major UK law firm providing a full service to clients worldwide. Making its environmental policy an integral part of wider business strategy, the company has taken a 2 strand approach to its environmental activities:

1. Taking practical eco-efficient steps centrally
To reduce energy use, Wragge & Co has converted to 100% renewable electricity sources for its main office, installed movement detectors in meeting rooms, and programmed its air conditioning system to power down out of core office hours. To reduce and improve the impact of paper use, the company has introduced e-filing and an electronic fax distribution system, and switched to paper which is FSC approved and has a minimum of 75% recycled content.
The company has also introduced on-site filtering and bottling of drinking water to eliminate the carbon emissions and waste associated with plastic bottled water, and replaced plastic cups and spoons in kitchen areas with metal spoons and glasses.

2. Engaging employees on their environmental impact
Wragge & Co also recognised that to attract and retain the most talented individuals it needed to demonstrate its environmental credentials. To engage employees on environmental initiatives it created a network of 30 ‘eco-champions’ tasked with encouraging colleagues to adopt more eco-friendly working practices, such as re-using travel wallets. It also held a firm-wide campaign to encourage staff to do “Three Simple Things” – turn off PC monitors, think before they printed and recycle. As part of this it arranged screenings of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and started a DVD loan scheme to allow employees to watch the film at home.

Impact
• On-site water bottling reduce use by 8,000 bottles per year and saved approximately £10,000
• Plastic spoons reduced by 100% from 15,000 per year to zero
• Re-use in rail ticket wallets has resulted in a 32% reduction in purchases and is estimated to save £1,000 per year
• Over 200 staff attended screenings of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and 120 staff have taken a copy home