Going green is the political and social mantra of the day and with firms keen to jump on the bandwagon a number of them signed up to the Legal Sector Alliance in spring. The aim is for members to voluntarily publish their carbon footprint figures to allow them to compare themselves against others and to measure their future carbon reductions.

No-one is quite sure where this will all lead (if Will Self on Question Time last night is to be believed, then we are all doomed already) but it makes for good publicity whilst the Earth’s ecosystem is still in tact and lawyers are still a viable species so…

Unsurprisingly the initial figures published by the founding firms reveal that employees’ carbon emissions at large international firms far outstrip those of staff at smaller regional firms. Electricity and international jet setting are the biggest factors. (Click to see The Lawyer’s table comparing the figures). So will it be more cross border video conferencing for the likes of A&O in future? Guess we will have to wait and see…