Our commitment

  • Promoting a positive environmental culture shared by all
  • Providing well trained and competent people
  • Maintaining and reviewing the management system to ensure an effective framework of compliance
  • Transparency in the reporting of environmental performance for continued effective management.
  • Providing a system that prevents pollution and damage to the environment.
  • Making the necessary improvements identified for continual improvement.
  • Working towards being Net Zero by 2030

As a responsible employer we are committed to continual improvement in reducing our adverse environmental impacts, prevention of pollution and compliance with environmental legislation.

We have undertaken an environmental review and will continue to monitor and track our consumption of energy, water and paper and seek opportunities to reduce our Carbon Footprint. In particular, we intend to reduce emissions in scopes 1, 2, and 3, in order to be Net Zero by 2030 and work towards ISO14001 certification.

To that end we are committed to:

  • Providing sufficient finance and resources needed to maintain and improve performance of the ISO 140001 Environmental Management System
  • Providing all staff with the right information, instruction, supervision, and training appropriate to their role
  • Identifying aspects of the organisation’s activities that have an environmental impact
  • Ensuring that our environmental policy is understood and followed
  • Setting targets which promote continual improvement, utilising Achill's Carbon Calculator
  • Communicating environmental objectives throughout the organisation
  • Hold people accountable at all levels for their environmental responsibilities
  • Consulting and communicating on environmental matters with staff
  • Meeting with suppliers, contractors and companies that provide services and equipment’s to us and endeavour to ensure that their standards match our own and are procured from sustainable sources or have a lower environmental impact than those goods or services they replace
  • Working whereever practicable with interested parties such as landlords, suppliers, contractors, and clients on beneficial environmental programmes
  • The prevention of pollution, the protection of the environment, and maintain, implement and improve environmental performance and management as an integral part of our business
  • Complying with relevant environmental legislation and guidance
  • Promoting recycling amongst staff and communicating internally on our policies, procedures, and performance where appropriate
  • Take reasonable steps to maintain high operational control to reduce energy consumption and any harmful emissions which result from business activities
  • Monitoring and where possible minimising our energy and water consumption utilising the Carbon Calculator
  • Regularly reviewing legislation and new best practice developments and ensuring that where appropriate these are incorporated into existing management practices and procedures
  • Continually monitoring our paper consumption and take the necessary steps to reduce unnecessary waste
  • Where we cannot avoid generating waste, ensuring that we have processes in place to segregate general waste
  • Ensuring that all redundant IT is disposed of under WEEE regulations 2007
  • Committing to working enhancing its accredited ISO:14001 Environmental Management System to provide a framework for continual improvement
  • Supporting Chambers via membership of the Bar Sustainability Network

How do we support our environmental statement

Energy management

  • We are currently on a fixed tariff from our electricity supplier, which ensures up to 100% of our energy comes from a renewable source
  • All internal lights have PIR sensors and will automatically turn off after 10 mins of inactivity in the respect areas
  • Our EPC (Energy performance Certificate) Rating is B,2022 Previously E 2018

IT

  • All our IT equipment has ‘power saving mode’ enabled
  • All redundant IT equipment is disposed of following The UK Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2007

Print

  • All print settings use minimal power mode and printing is set to black and white and double sided as default
  • All MDFs if unused for 20 minutes automatically go into power saving mode
  • All normal print paper is printed on 90GSM 100% recycled paper.

General waste

  • All general office waste is segregate at source
  • All food waste is segregated at source.
  • All our white goods and screens/monitors are A+ rated energy efficient

LED Lights

  • Our LED lighting is more energy efficient than previous fluorescent bulbs
  • Our new 60 watt LED lights put out the same lighting as a 100 watt fluorescent light or three of the old strip’s lights
  • Our current LEDs consume 25% less power than fluorescent tubes, so lower energy bills
  • LED lights last on average up to 13 times longer than fluorescent tubes
  • Fluorescent bulbs contain mercury, and therefore present waste disposal issues

Water consumption

Our Zip taps work by harnessing thermodynamic heat-exchange technology to recover waste heat energy, therefore using less energy. By harvesting the waste heat generated by the chilled water-cooling cycle, we then reuse it to preheat the water entering the hot water tank. This design provides a massive CO2 energy saving compared to previous water boilers.

Office furniture

70% of the current office furniture has been recycled and reused. Any new furniture is purchased via an ethical procurment process. All white goods are purchased according to the highest rated energy efficiency.

Cleaning products

All cleaning products are environmentally friendly, bin bags are biodegradable, and waste is segregated at source.