General Guidance:

·          Many questions allow up to ten additional line items to describe your firm’s activities.  You are encouraged to submit those line items to allow for maximum point recognition if you have not instituted any of the current action items..

·          All questions outside of the specific written policy questions should be considered as asking if your firm engages in these activities as matter of policy, formal or informal, including standard of procedure or as best practices.

·          When completing ALISS, all "one-time" or non-continuous initiatives, such as audits, should have been implemented within the past two years to qualify, unless otherwise noted in the question.

·          All on-going initiatives that have been implemented more than two years past qualify, as long as they are still currently being implemented, such as electronic invoicing, duplex printing, etc.

·          All questions apply to the office being assessed. Certain questions may allow you to apply a firm-wide response.

·          If you have not engaged in any activity, do not mark the question.

GLOSSARY:

Actively is at least 50% of the time or more than 6x a year

Chief Sustainability Officer or Chief CSR Officer commits their full time to sustainability-related initiatives in the organization and reports directly to firm leadership.

Environmental Audit or Review may be done for compliance, management as well as functional.  Environmental audits and review can quantify performance and position.

Executive Committee is the group that monitors the firm's economic performance and provides the overall long-range planning policy and direction and makes major decisions or recommend major decisions to the firm.

Firm Leadership is executive-level governance and may include Senior Partner/Managing Partner, Executive Committee, or other Management Committee (with equity stakeholders) or C-Suite level equivalents.

Firm Management is practice/operational/staff level governance and may include partners, principals (equity stakeholders) and department heads.

Formal Policy includes a written policy.  If it is not written, the policy may be considered formal if factors are included in decision making process as part of standard procedure

GPF is gallons per flush.

GPM is gallons per minute.

Green Energy generally refers to electricity supplied in whole or in part from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, geothermal, hydropower, and various forms of biomass.

“Green” Practices and Business represents legal practices devoted to advising clients in enterprises that have minimal negative impact on the environment, community, and economy.

Green Team is the group consisting of law firm personnel that assists in the design and implementation of the firm’s sustainability program.

Independent formal reporting body is an organizations that provides a platform to report on sustainability-related activities, such as GRI, B LAB, etc.

Personnel includes all employees at the firm.  Employees and personnel are used interchangeably.

Renewable Energy Certificates or RECs represent the environmental attributes of the power produced from renewable energy projects and are sold separately from commodity electricity.  RECs incentivize carbon-neutral renewable energy by providing a production subsidy to electricity generated from renewable sources.

Senior Partner/Managing Partner is the highest formal job title given to the equity holder in charge of a firm's overall practice, management and day-to-day operations. This individual is roughly equivalent to a chief executive officer of a corporation in terms of duties and responsibilities.

Sustainability Committee is an executive-level group that oversees the strategy and execution of the sustainability program.