Lanyon Bowdler praised for gaining third consecutive Green Achiever gold award

Lanyon Bowdler, which employs 220 people across its six offices in Shropshire and Hereford, was recently presented with the accolade at its Oswestry practice by The Rt Hon Owen Paterson, MP for North Shropshire and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Having originally signed up to the Green Achiever scheme in September 2008, the firm achieved silver status the following April, Best Green Business at the 2009 Shropshire Business Awards and was highly commended for the LSA Award for Excellence in Environmental Responsibility at The Law Society Excellence Awards in 2010. Since then further progress has been made in key areas such as reducing energy consumption and paper use as well as a lowering of its carbon footprint. In 2008 Lanyon Bowdler had four offices and although it now has six, the average energy costs across all of them have remained the same thanks to the installation of, for example, more efficient air conditioning; which paid for itself within seven months; heating thermostats, virtual servers and LED lighting which as a result, has also led to a reduction in planned building maintenance.

Lanyon Bowdler has implemented various IT solutions to support its aim of reducing paper usage. As a consequence savings have been made on purchases and the cost of archiving documents. In general terms, employees are encouraged to car share, walk and, with shower facilities at the new Telford office, cycle to work. The carbon footprint per employee at Lanyon Bowdler in 2012 is 1.32 tonnes CO2. This compares with an average figure of 3.57 tonnes CO2 for other members of the Legal Sector Alliance.

Peter Flint, senior partner at Lanyon Bowdler, said: “Our involvement in Green Achiever was initiated by the staff who continue to drive the project forward with support from management. Each office has its own eco monitor and there is an environmental committee, planning activities, setting goals and targets and producing an internal newsletter. We have come a long way since 2008 with simple, practical changes making a difference not only to the bottom line but the way in which everyone at the firm has embraced their environmental responsibilities.”

Commenting on the achievement Owen Paterson MP, said: “Lanyon Bowdler’s achievement is a great example of how to address key operational issues within a company or organisation and by doing so not only save money and increase efficiency but also encourage a positive ‘can do’ working environment. To attain gold status for the third time reinforces the firm’s long-term commitment to the initiative and for that I offer my congratulations to everyone at Lanyon Bowdler.”