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responsibility, and it cuts across all sec- tors. Like charitable donations in time and money, which help to raise the pro- file of designated causes, taking action to cut down waste and make sustainable choices has become another reality of business. Technology consultants Accenture, for example, surveyed more than 7,500 consumers in 17 countries last year and found over 90 per cent of Canadian re- spondents were concerned about cli- mate change. What's more, 93 per cent of Canadians said they would switch to an energy provider with products or ser- vices that reduce carbon emissions, and 71 per cent said they'd pay more — an average of 10-per-cent more — to do their part. And as go consumers, so goes corporate. The initial impact may be most evi- dent on energy providers, but it seems likely it will spread," says Sander van 't Noordende, group chief executive of Accenture's resources operating group. "From oil and gas companies to retailers to financial services companies to gov- ernments, no provider of products or services will be immune from consum- ers' scrutiny and action." And with that kind of groundswell, employees, too, are looking to their em- ployers to do the right thing, so it's no surprise that there's a green movement among law firms across Canada. Victoria Cowling, a partner at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, says her firm is also in the midst of a similar quest to identify immediate changes and longer-term ad- justments based on best practices, both within the law sector and other corpo- rate fields. As in any large organization, the ini- tial stage was to get organized across the country with committees — or green teams, as they're referred to internally. "In a way we're lucky because there's been a lot of work on this in the U.S. and there's a lot of great information avail- able on the web," she says. As other firms have found, there is a bedrock of support for going green among employees and peers across the country. Cowling says there was a flood of offers to help and internal ideas when the initiative was announced. Perhaps the biggest waste of resourc- es in a law office is found around the printer and copier stations. It's no se- cret that a practice feeds on paper — by the ton. The American Bar Associa- tion Journal last year reported a typical lawyer uses 20,000 to 100,000 sheets of www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com SEPTEMBER 2008 49