Easy steps a law department can take to reduce energy consumption

An article in Legal Tech. News, April 2008 at 36, lists many easy things any legal team in a company can do to protect the environment. Six of the actions are possible for every law department. (1) Remove your name from mailing lists that send out paper catalogs. (2) Install software that omits the last page of printouts from the web, the page that only shows a line or two from the bottom of the website (they refer to Print Greener software www.printgreener.com). (3) Conduct interviews of candidates and law firms by video conference. (4) Power down computers and printers: “for every dollar spent on IT hardware, 50 cents is spent on powering them.” (5) Distribute more reports electronically and design them with an eye toward them efficient printing. (6) Install lower-energy flat panel monitors.

I will add that one law department I have worked with has collection bags for used batteries and its printers are set to print double sided. Another department has ended the practice of spewing out a cover sheet before each print job (See my post of April 23, 2008: filing cabinets and environmental costs; Dec. 26, 2007: lights and energy-saving; April 27, 2007: environmental sensibilities of recycling.).