Resources

Quick Wins to Boost Your Organisation’s Sustainability

Getting Started

There are a number of quick and easy steps you can take to reduce your environmental impact and save money. If the number of options listed below feels overwhelming, start with a simple, three-step process:

  • Measure your carbon footprint. Don’t worry if your data is not perfect, breaking the task into manageable steps makes it easier. The awareness that comes from collecting and analysing the data is often just as important as the final figure you achieve!
  • Focus on high-impact areas: Target the biggest sources of waste or emissions revealed by your audit to achieve the most significant results
  • Start small and build momentum: Implement one or two quick wins. As you see the benefits, you can expand your efforts and tackle bigger goals over time

Recycling/Resource Use

  • For old computer equipment, check out the waste hierarchy. Donating to an IT charity is the first step. Computer Aid or Turin Trust are good charities.
  • If recycling is the only option, then any registered WEEE waste carrier should have the same standards, for example Computer IT Disposal or ICT Reverse,
  • Provide glasses and mugs rather than disposable cups
  • Limit use of disposable goods, e.g. pens, in favour of reusable ones
  • Make it easy for staff to recycle as much as possible: paper, card, glass, plastic, aluminium, batteries, old phones
  • Take away individual waste bins and replace them with office recycling bins
  • Start composting food waste
  • Lengthen the life of toner cartridges by adjusting printer settings to draft quality, and black and white
  • Recycle used toner cartridges
  • At Christmas, make a donation to a charity rather than sending Christmas cards
  • Use environmentally friendly cleaning products
  • Give an active preference to products that have minimal packaging and are locally sourced
  • Discourage excessive ordering of stationery by installing a central ordering system
  • Maximise savings by putting up signage reminding staff to save energy and reduce waste
  • Fix dripping taps

Digital Sustainability

Every day, hundreds of billions of emails are sent worldwide, generating millions of tonnes of CO₂e each year. Collectively adopting small habit changes will make a difference across an organisation.

  • Educate employees about the hidden energy costs of digital actions — from email storage to cloud use
  • Avoid “reply all” when not needed and unsubscribe from unused mailing lists
  • Use plain text or light email templates — large attachments and heavy HTML increase data storage and transmission energy, so consider deleting the logos in your footer
  • Regularly review data storage policies to minimise redundant backups and archives
  • Enable energy-efficient settings like automatic email archiving and server sleep modes
  • Limit unnecessary AI queries or experiments — they consume considerable computational power
  • Encourage colleagues to draft efficiently before using AI, reducing the number of generations needed

  • Get an idea of the weight of (and therefore carbon impact of) your website using Website Carbon Calculator, Website Emissions, or the more comprehensive Page Speed Insights, and explore ways to reduce it. This blog from Wholegrain Digital offers good tips. Be aware, however, that these tools rely on proxy metrics, such as page weight (data transfer volume), rather than measuring actual energy consumption across the entire system, so while they can be useful for raising awareness or comparing the relative performance of different design choices within the same methodology, they cannot provide a truly accurate, quantifiable measure of a website’s actual carbon footprint. 

Paper Use

  • Only print when necessary
  • Default to digital bundles and electronic case management
  • Save paper costs by buying 100% recycled paper and reusing discarded paper for notes
  • Default printers to print double-sided where practical
  • Print internal documents in size 11 font and reduce the borders to 1.5cm
  • Inform staff whether agenda and minutes will or won’t be available at meetings to avoid duplication of printing
  • Send internal memos electronically
  • Use ‘track changes’ to review documents rather than printing
  • Delete junk mail and unsubscribe to unwanted publications
  • Re-use bubble wrap, boxes, and padded envelopes where possible
  • Collect and re-use name badges after events and meetings where possible

Energy Use

  • Minimise energy costs by ensuring that all equipment and lights are turned off (i.e. not left on standby) when not in use
  • Install movement sensors in meeting rooms, and encourage staff to switch off light switches by
  • labelling them to indicate which area of the office they light. Ask security to check all lights are switched off once the building is empty
  • Encourage staff to switch off monitors when away from their desks for more than 5-10 minutes and to shut computers down when they leave the office. Turning off a single computer when not in use instead of leaving it on standby can save as much as £5 every year, and turning one off that would have been on screen saver mode can save up to £45 a year
  • Reduce energy bills by turning down the heating when it is not needed and always ensure that this is done before opening a window. Check that heating is not timed to come on overnight or at weekends
  • Turning the heating down by one degree could save 8% of your energy bill a year. The Energy Saving Trust recommends setting the heating in offices to 19°C and cooling at 24°C or higher. The temperature in corridors, storerooms and areas of higher physical activity can be set lower than 19°C
  • If extra heating is needed, use oil-fuelled rather than electric fan heaters. They use 750W of
  • energy as opposed to 3kW
  • Ensure all light bulbs are energy efficient – LEDs are more efficient than halogen
  • Ensure air conditioning vents or heating are not blocked by office furniture or boxes
  • Switch your electricity supplier to a green tariff. Many suppliers will assist in monitoring energy use and promoting reduction

Transport Use

  • Save time, inconvenience, and pollution by using remote hearings and online conferences when appropriate, reducing unnecessary travel
  • Consider encouraging hybrid working, reducing the need for travel
  • Provide interest-free season ticket loans
  • Use cycle couriers where possible
  • Use LPG and/or carbon-neutral taxi companies and encourage use of public transport whenever possible by making this easier to book through a central system
  • Encourage staff to cycle to work by installing secure bike racks, shower facilities. and cycle mileage allowance
  • Introduce travel policies that reward car-sharing

General

  • Establish a working group within your organisation to track progress and promote sustainable initiatives

Let us know about any other ideas, to share best practices and amplify impact — manager@greenerlitigation.org.

Thank you for your work tackling your carbon emissions.

Yours,

The Greener Litigation team