ALISS Instructions
Welcome to ALISS! ALISS is a sustainability assessment tool developed specifically for law firms to provide guidance on how to enhance your sustainability program and track progress as well as earn awards for your achievements.
In these instructions, you will learn how to:
· Log in for your firm
· Complete your firm and office profiles
· Delegate responsibilities
· Respond to questions on firmwide and office levels
· Submit and view your response
· Make your response public or private
Logging in and Accessing ALISS
Firm representatives with LFSN login accounts will use their LFSN username and password to log in to the ALISS system.
1. Firm representatives will designate in the form who will act as the "Firm Administrator" to oversee the ALISS response and submission. This may be the firm representative or another individual in the firm.
2. The Firm Administrator will assign each office location to a firm individual who will be responsible for completing those office location responses (i.e., office manager, head of green team, etc.). An automated email will be sent to the email address provided under "Office Admin Email”. This email will contain a link to a new account activation page. Please notify your personnel beforehand and have them check any spam filter for the email.
3. The Office Administrator will activate the account via the email by entering and confirming their password on the account activation page.
4. The Office Administrator will log in to the ALISS site and enter the office profile information and complete the office responses to which he/she has been assigned. Office administrators will only be able to view the office locations to which they have been assigned.
Office Administrators with Existing Office Accounts (before 9/15/15)
Users are encouraged to log in and change their password from the default to something else. This is done by logging in on the ALISS site and then clicking the “Hello <">user@domain.com!”
Completing Your Firm Profile
As the Firm Administrator, you will complete the firm profile:
1. Enter your firm's name.
2. Date your firm registered with ALISS (i.e. today’s date).
3. Enter the total attorneys in your U.S. offices.
4. Enter the total personnel (staff and attorneys in your U.S. offices). *Remember that your assessment is weighted based on personnel.
5. To add offices so you can begin your survey, in the "Firm View," click on "Add New" in the top right corner. You should include all of your U.S. offices in the assessment.
6. The Firm Administrator will add the location name. The Firm Administrator may also at this time, add the number of attorneys, total personnel, landlord/management name, and square footage.
7. The Firm Administrator will enter the email address of the person who will be responsible for completing the information for that office. This person can be the Firm Administrator or another person who will be known as the Office Administrator.
8. The Office Administrators, once they’ve activated their account through an email link, will be able to view all of their assigned offices. The Office Administrators will review the location names and either add or review the number of attorneys, total personnel, landlord/management name, and square footage.
9. The Firm Administrator may view or delete the office information from the "Firm View" page. Both Firm and Office Administrators will be able to edit the office by clicking on "View" and going to "Edit" on the bottom of the "Office Location Detail" page.
10. Once the firm and office profiles are completed, the Firm Administrator will need to make sure that the firm profile personnel tally is equivalent to the aggregate of the office personnel. If it is not, the firm administrator will see an alert asking how you wish to reconcile the score.
Completing the Firmwide and Office Level Survey Questions
The Firm Administrator must click on Create New Survey to begin completing your ALISS survey response.
1. Go to the section labeled "In-Progress Survey." You will see the option to complete "Firmwide" responses and each office location response.
2. Firm Administrators may complete certain questions of the survey as a firmwide response.
Example: Do you have a sustainability policy?
Questions such as these may be answered on a firmwide basis if all offices are under one sustainability policy or each and every office has sustainability policy.
3. As the Firm Administrator, first review the survey by clicking on "Edit" by "Firmwide Responses" and determine if you would like to answer any of those questions on a firmwide basis, in which the response will be applied to all offices. If yes, you may mark those entries. Fill in the description fields for all questions. The other questions in the Firmwide View may be left blank and can be addressed individually by the Office Administrators in their Office View.
4. Please make sure to Save.
5. The Firm Administrator may also choose not to use the firmwide response section and delegate to the Office Administrators the office location responses. Firm Administrators also have access to any office location responses to make edits.
6. The Office Administrators and Firm Administrators both have the ability to edit the office survey responses. This is done by clicking on "Edit." To view or edit, click on "Edit."
7. Office Administrators will see on their office survey, those particular questions the Firm Administrator responded to on a firmwide basis as marked and shaded. That means scoring has been adjusted for that response, however Office Administrators should still fill in the description fields and qualify what they have done in their office.
8. Office Administrators should mark the checkbox "Completed" once they have finished the office location survey.
9. Once all the office location surveys are complete, the "Firm Administrator" will mark the checkbox to include it in the ALISS assessment.
Calculating and Viewing Your ALISS Score
1. The Firm Administrator will be able to calculate the firm's score once the firmwide and office level responses have been finished. You may calculate your score by clicking on "View Survey Results."
2. Calculating the score does not equal submitting or publishing your score. You may continue revising your response as necessary and monitoring your score as you progress before submitting.
3. Once you calculate, you will see what badge you have qualified for and the threshold to qualify for the next level badge.
· Platinum
· Gold
· Silver
· Bronze
· Reporter
4. There are multiple levels to view your ALISS response.
· ALISS Summary Score: Top level view of points in each category.
· ALISS Subcategory Score: More detailed view of points in each subcategory.
· ALISS Detailed Score: Detailed view of scoring by question.
To view how the score has been weighted, click on "Weighted."
Submitting and Publishing Your ALISS Score
You will then choose what aspects of your ALISS score will be publicly viewable in addition to your firm’s name as a participant and any case studies.
1. Once you are finished with your firm's ALISS assessment, click on the acknowledgment of the submission Agreement, which states that all of the information in the ALISS submission is accurate, up-to-date and ready for reporting, to the best of the submitter’s knowledge, information and belief.
2. Click on "Submit" and this will be your firm's official ALISS score.
You may choose to make any of the following public or private:
· Qualifying Badge
· Scoring Summary
· Subcategory Scoring Summary
· Detailed Questionnaire and Scoring
3. After one final confirmation the law firm’s ALISS Rating will be published and become publicly available immediately.
4. ALISS scores will be valid for two years from last submission.
5. At any time, you may resubmit your response to obtain a new score. Your firm may have embarked on a new sustainability initiative or moved to a "greener" building or you may have discovered parts of your sustainability program were not included. These would be appropriate reasons to resubmit.
Once the response is submitted, you may display your badge on your website and materials to show that you have completed your ALISS assessment!