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Becoming increasingly environmentally responsible

to address the challenges of our society

Reducing our environmental footprint is a key focus for our law firm. This is why our environmental policy is ambitious and covers all areas of our work. It is supplemented by an awareness programme that involves every single team member.

Our environmental roadmap includes measurable and time-bound goals. It is based on the sustainable development goals set out in the UN’s Global Compact, which we have committed to on an international level.

A strong local environmental commitment

Our environmental approach is driven by 3 goals:

  • To avoid, reduce and off-set environmental impacts.

It revolves around concrete actions including recycling, building management, procurement policy, travel and events organisation, as well as combating food waste.

Our environmental actions reach above and beyond our law firm.

Indeed, as legal specialists we have in-depth expertise of environmental issues. We help our clients navigate the challenges related to the environment and adherence to ESG criteria. This advisory role strengthens our resolve to conduct ourselves in an exemplary and responsible manner.

We also carry out pro bono work and donate to charities involved in supporting the environment.

Inspired by our values, we are spearheading two great causes in our pro bono programme: equal opportunities and inclusion, and the environment. We carry out donations, carbon footprint offset projects and skills sponsorship in tax, legal and employment matters.

Area 1: reduce and recycle all of our waste

Since we moved into our rue Ancelle premises in 2015, we have implemented a major policy of waste reduction and recycling of what we cannot avoid using, by ensuring systematic waste sorting in all corners of our law firm.
To meet our goals, we encourage everyone to become involved to avoid and to reduce our waste as much as possible.

  • Striving to recycle more and better: to ease and standardise selective waste sorting internally, many containers have been placed around our premises. 

In parallel with this sorting policy, we endeavour to consume differently. With paper for example, we encourage double-sided printing, in black and white, and only if there is a need to print. Since 2019, we have only been buying FSE (Forest Stewardship Council) and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes)*certified paper.

*FSC and PEFC labels ensure that wood or wood-based products comply with procedures guaranteeing sustainable forest management.

Between 2018 and 2019, we have: 
• reduced by 5 tons the annual volume of reams bought;
• reduced by 3 tons the annual volume of paper to recycle

"Zero plastic” objective

• The introduction of glass water bottles in meeting rooms and new Aquapax bottles in the cafeteria enabled us to avoid using 6,500 plastic bottles in 2020.
• Since June 2021, each team member received a mug and a water bottle. Their daily use has helped avoid throwing away around 215,000 disposable cups.
• We have eliminated straws and use only plastic-free meal trays in all food choices we provide.

Replacing coffee capsules machines with ground coffee machines, scheduled for June 2021, will enable us to avoid throwing away 180,000 coffee capsules i.e. 700 kg of aluminium a year.
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Area 2: reduce digital impacts on the environment

Since 2018, our law firm has set up a more virtuous management of its digital strategy. It is based on a Cloud-First strategy for all of our applications, the systematic recycling of material at their end of life, the integration of environmental criteria in the purchasing of our equipment, the extension of the life span of material (including its non-renewal), improved computer power management as well as a proactive printing strategy.

Digitisation of services: Cloud First

Innovation is at the heart of our law firm and for several years, we have been transforming service provision by offering:

  • online services: contralto, tax policy, RegIT;
  • applications: Social law + contralto, CMS Dawn raid CMS Insurance app;
  • Shared workspaces: Collaborate and RegIT;
  • online signatures with Docusign.

Focus on IT Clean Up Week, a reminder of good practices for emails

In June 2021, we organised the IT Clean Up Week 

Why? To make people aware of the environmental impact of email and to encourage them to clean up their inboxes by deleting non-useful emails.

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By becoming a signatory to the Planet Tech'Care manifesto, we are strengthening our commitment to a more responsible digital environment by integrating it into our GHG reduction trajectory. Planet Tech'Care has 590 signatories, 21 ambassadors and 24 partners.

Planet Tech'Care in a few words

Planet Tech'Care is the first initiative and platform bringing together a network of partners (professional organisations, schools, competitiveness clusters, associations, foundations, think tanks), whose ambition is to support companies wishing to integrate digital technology into their environmental trajectory and thus support training players in the development of responsible digital skills.

Area 3: responsible premises to reduce our carbon footprint

Our environmental responsibility also requires the sustainable management of our premises. As such, our building is BREEAM and HQE certified. In 2020, we renegotiated our energy contract to optimise our consumption and now, we only use green energy.

So as to reduce our energy consumption, we decided to: 

  • apply, since 2021, jointly with our landlord, the requirements relating to the French tertiary decree. By already applying this decree, we are going over and beyond simply meeting the reporting requirement and we are setting up corrective measures to improve the building’s energy efficiency.
  • to set up starting in 2022, an energy performance contract with the building maintenance company. 
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Area 4: responsible purchasing

Our purchasing team reviews the carbon emission reduction commitment of our suppliers and ensures the systematic integration of CSR criteria in our call for tenders. For example, we use FSC/PEFC paper and recycled supplies. Furthermore, our consumption of office supplies consists in over 70% of recycled and recyclable products.

We encourage our suppliers to adopt constantly better practices; societal responsibility and sustainable management are at the heart of our procurement chain. Internally, our lawyers and our staff are aware of more integral practices when purchasing goods and services.

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Area 5: fighting food waste: rethinking our food options

We are also committed to fighting food waste and promoting a healthy and sustainable diet. We have been working with our suppliers for several years and are able to offer our teams responsible, local and organic collective food choices. Since October 2021, our law firm has set up a new catering offer with a B Corporation® certified business, with menus offering local and seasonal products and a click and collect system as well as Toogoodtogo to continue tackling food waste.

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Area 6: soft and green mobility

For several years now, our law firm has been committed to ease and promote green mobility and to reduce the impact of transport and our travels on the environment:

  • green taxis ordered by default for our teams;
  • deployment of charging facilities to ease and encourage the use of electric vehicles;
  • planning of secure cycle parking facilities to promote the use of cycling for commutes;
  • development of remote work.

In 2022, our law firm aims to develop the use of soft mobility.

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Area 7: Offsetting our GHGs

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In early 2021, we took another step forward in our environmental policy: a new partnership with the French National Forest Office (ONF). We are highlighting an essential imperative for the planet and its inhabitants by playing our part in the collective drive for carbon neutrality. To this end, we have made a choice: planting trees in French national forests.

In early 2021, we took another step forward in our environmental policy: a new partnership with the French National Forest Office (ONF). We are highlighting an essential imperative for the planet and its inhabitants by playing our part in the collective drive for carbon neutrality. To this end, we have made a choice: planting  trees in French national forests.

Our annual volume of greenhouse gas emissions is around 700 tonnes.  Through our partnership with the ONF, our carbon offsets amounted to  2040 tonnes. To achieve this, we have chosen, along with the ONF, the projects to restore the state forests of Ourscamp-Carlepont near Compiègne in 2021 and Marly in the Yvelines in 2022. And we want to do even more. Between now and 2025, our aim is to compensate all our emissions and obtain the Label Bas Carbone, a French low-carbon certification.

The French National Forest Office in a few words:

For 30 years, the ONF has been involved in a partnership approach (sponsorship) with companies, in the service of public forests. Today, faced with the climate emergency and the loss of biodiversity, it is necessary to go further and faster, and to be more efficient. 
A major player in the forestry and wood industry, the ONF is present in France and overseas. On a day-to-day basis, the work of foresters is based on three inseparable objectives: wood production, environmental protection and public access. The Office also carries out public service missions in the field of natural risk management, and offers services to local authorities and companies.

https://www.onf.fr/

Our pro bono investment in the environment

 

When we commit to reduce and compensate our emissions, the aim is also to maintain existing ecosystems. For CMS Francis Lefebvre, our involvement in support of the environment also means that we must play a role in conserving biodiversity. Our partnership with the non-profit organisation Noé began in 2008.

Since 2012, CMS Francis Lefebvre’s partnership with Noé has revolved around the financing of a participatory scientific programme, the Observatoire de la biodiversité des jardins, focusing on the observation of butterflies and snails. Its aim is to raise people’s awareness of biodiversity in their daily environment and encourage them to take part in the scientific study of the species concerned.
Two other initiatives complete this partnership:

  • members of Noé organise talks and workshops to help raise awareness among our employees;
  • volunteer lawyers from CMS Francis Lefebvre provide legal, employment and tax assistance to the organisation.

About Noé

Noé is a non-profit nature conservancy organisation recognised under French law as being in the public interest. Noé implements programmes for the conservation of endangered species, the management of protected natural areas, the restoration of ordinary biodiversity and natural habitats, the reconnection of humans with nature, and that support economic activities and civil society organisations working toward biodiversity conservation.

https://en.noe.org/

The Fondation de la Mer

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Our firm has made a commitment to the Fondation de la mer in 2022. Our ambition is to provide 150 hours of skills sponsorship per year and to organise a waste collection walk to protect marine ecosystems. The Fondation de la Mer is 24,998 volunteers, 125 tons of waste collected per year and 27,998 young people sensitised.

The Fondation de la Mer is at the service of all those who act for a sustainably protected Ocean, exploited with care and wisdom. Today, it supports hundreds of local players and implements its own programs to protect marine biodiversity, fight against pollution at sea, support research, encourage innovation, and inform and raise awareness among the general public, especially young people. Their objectives are to contribute permanently to the public debate and to promote research by creating the first European network of young French-speaking ocean researchers; to fight against pollution on the coast and at sea and to protect and restore marine ecosystems and, finally, to train 100% of young people to protect the ocean and to integrate it into the heart of business management.

https://www.fondationdelamer.org/en/home/

ONF – Agir pour la forêt

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In 2022, our firm is committed to the ONF - Agir pour la forêt endowment fund. Our objectives are to provide legal, social and tax assistance to meet the needs of the endowment fund, and to raise awareness of environmental issues among our staff through the organisation of conferences.

ONF - Agir pour la forêt in a few words

ONF- Agir pour la forêt is an endowment fund created on the initiative of the ONF, whose objectives are to develop, support and facilitate in France actions for the protection and enhancement of public forests and associated natural environments, particularly in the fields of:

  • rehabilitation and reconstruction after natural disasters;
  • combating the effects of climate change;
  • prevention of natural risks, preservation of biodiversity.

https://www.onf-agirpourlaforet.fr/