Law firms promote sustainability

Two dozen U.S. law firms, including Nixon Peabody, have joined in an effort to promote environmental sustainability in the legal industry.

The mission of the Law Firm Sustainability Network is "to develop key performance indicators, foster knowledge-sharing, develop best practice guidelines, and recognize and promote sustainability innovations in the U.S. legal sector," according to a press release from the nonprofit group.

The organization was founded in 2011 as an informal platform for sharing ideas, networking, and developing best practices and sustainability standards. It incorporated last November and formed a governing body earlier this year, the group said.

The network is working to produce a self-assessment tool that measures firms’ implementation of energy-efficient practices, recycling and related measures. It also said it will publish a statistical analysis of top firms’ current implementation of those practices later this year, and begin next year to launch standards and publish the results of benchmark survey.