Memberships
“As good corporate citizens, we have the responsibility to take an active role on issues impacting the broader community,” said John Koneck, President of Fredrikson & Byron. “Because global warming affects everyone, we are proud to join with other green-minded organizations to take proactive steps to be more environmentally-friendly.”
Program History and Goals
Fredrikson & Byron launched its sustainability and conservation program, Aim to Sustain, in June 2008. We want to reduce our firm’s carbon emissions, encourage and educate firm members to apply conservation and sustainability principles to their work and home lives, and create awareness of the opportunities and challenges associated with climate change for our business partners and clients.
We have implemented a number of changes across the firm, including eliminating bottled water, installing filtered water faucets within each café, switching to reusable sugar and creamer dispensers in conference rooms, and switching to biodegradable silverware and plates. We have worked with our attorneys, staff, and building management to decrease our use of electricity. In an effort to decrease the amount of paper we use, we are also increasing our use of double-sided printing.
One of our first milestones was offsetting 100% of power usage by purchasing Renewable Energy Credits (REC). These credits will be used to prevent as much as as 4,426,650 pounds of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas, from being emitted into the atmosphere annually. This effort has earned us a membership in EPA’s Green Power Partnership’s Leadership Club, a distinction shared by only nine law firms nationally. Eliminating our use of bottled water now saves the firm $3000 annually and we believe helps prevent more than 40 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere each year.
Fredrikson & Byron is participating in the ABA-EPA Law Office Climate Challenge, a program designed to encourage law offices to take simple, practical steps to become better environmental and energy stewards. The program provides a framework for implementing best practices for office paper management, the use of renewable energy, and better energy management.
More Information
To learn more about our energy partnerships and implementing these changes at your company, please follow the links below:
EPA’s Green Power Partnership
ABA-EPA Law Office Climate Challenge
Minnesota Waste Wise (MWW)
3Degrees
Contact Us
If you have any questions about the program feel free to email us at sustain@fredlaw.com.