S&C is committed to sustainability. Our focus on environmental sustainability includes the following areas:
- Prioritizing the health of our people and the public through office design, construction and operational practices that reduce our environmental impacts, water consumption and exposure to hazardous substances
- Responsible water use supported through the installation of water reduction technologies and leak detection systems
- Monitoring and managing our greenhouse gas emissions
- Resource conservation, through reduction of our energy consumption
- Forest and natural resource conservation, through reduction, reuse and recycling of paper and other commercial products
Every member of the Firm plays a vital role in our sustainability efforts, including partners, associates and professional staff. We are continually evaluating other ways to enhance the sustainability of our operations. In line with this, S&C has established an Environmental Task Force comprising personnel from across our international offices to identify and implement a variety of sustainability initiatives and volunteer opportunities.
Across our offices, we have implemented measures to reduce our environmental impacts, including ongoing upgrades and installations of smarter building technology:
- We annually disclose our greenhouse gas emissions and other climate-related impacts through global environmental disclosure nonprofit CDP, which enhances our ability to continue to monitor and manage such impacts
- We partner with organizations that align with our sustainability efforts, including donating food to City Harvest to help food deprived communities and working with New York City-based nonprofit organization the Billion Oyster Project to restore the oyster population in New York Harbor
- At our New York headquarters, we have partnered with Emerald Packaging to source compostable disposable products made with renewable resources and divert waste from landfills
- At our London office, we have used 100% renewable energy for the last 10 years
- For more than 10 years, S&C has committed to green cleaning products that meet the Green Seal GS-37 standard
- Our General Practice Group transitioned to online-only research documents and eliminated hard copy paper handouts in Firm presentations, and we use double-sided printing when hard copies are required
- Our engineering staff have completed a training and certification program to enhance our building operations and reinforce our energy reduction efforts
- Our installation of motion light sensors has reduced our electricity consumption
- We also reduced our consumption of disposable plastic water bottles, and single use plastics in general, with the addition of several hydration stations on each floor of our New York headquarters and throughout our recently renovated café
- We have earned other certifications that recognize energy conservation and efforts to createhealthy, efficient and cost-saving green buildings