At Stewarts we are committed to reducing the environmental impact of our business. We are continuously looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint and improve our working practices and product procurement processes.

We all have a part to play in reducing our carbon footprint. Our environmental policy is routinely updated by the Facilities Manager with input from the Chief Operations Officer and our Managing Partner.

Environmental policy

Our policy includes commitments covering our carbon footprint on areas such as emissions, waste and recycling, and sustainable procurement of goods and services. We also show our support for the legal sustainability community.

We are developing a set of measurable targets to track our progress towards each of our policy commitments over time. We are working towards the following goals:

• Going plastic-free: cutting out as much single-use plastic (and other materials) as possible.
• Carbon reporting: collecting and publishing data on our carbon footprint.
• Waste and Recycling: To achieve zero waste to landfill

Legal Sustainability Alliance

Stewarts Joined the Legal Sustainability Alliance in 2019 and immediately found easy wins to achieve our goals.

We have removed all single-use plastics from our kitchen facilities in favour of bamboo and bio-degradable cutlery. We no longer have disposable cups in our kitchens and instead opted to supply each member of staff with their own “Keep cup”.

Waste streams have been split so that we can ensure the easy separation of food waste from general recycling. 79% of our waste is recycled or composted. The remaining waste is converted to energy at a waste to energy plant.

We have removed individual desk bins and opted for centralised bins offering the two waste stream options.

Paper-light

We have identified that paper usage is one of our most environmentally damaging aspects of our business. Manufacture, delivery, printing and the energy used in recycling all have a negative impact on the environment. We cannot eradicate the use of paper in the legal sector just yet but we can minimise the use of it. We have invested heavily in technology. This technology means we can avoid printing hardcopy documents. We are not completely free of paper but we have made great progress.