Environmental

Martin Tolhurst Solicitors is committed to an eco-friendly work environment.

Martin Tolhurst’s sustainability drive is led and co-ordinated by our dedicated Green Team, made up of staff from across the firm. We have ongoing debate to ensure we maintain and develop an integrated, comprehensive and practical sustainability policy that ranges from how we source our energy and office supplies, to how we print and recycle.

Consider, engage, and communicate with all interested parties: we assess our activities' environmental and energy aspects, impacts, risks, and opportunities. We recognise the need to work collaboratively with our whole supply chain. 

Across our offices, we are committed to the following practices:

• Sustainable office buildings: moving into energy-efficient office buildings that facilitate sustainable practices, such as energy-efficient lighting, eco-friendly building materials and furniture, and energy-reducing motion sensors to reduce light and water usage.
• Energy reduction: educating our staff on the benefits of turning off monitors and computers at night. These practices are projected to prevent the release of up to 325 tons of carbon dioxide per year into the atmosphere.
• Waste reduction: providing reusable utensils and glasses in all of our office kitchens.
• Responsible paper consumption: developing a paperless initiative to promote green workplace behaviours, adopt best practices and leverage technologies to reduce paper in the workplace. Our vision is to reduce our physical consumption of paper by 60% within the next few years.
• Reduced Auto Emissions: Martin Tolhurst Solicitors uses video conferencing for internal and external meetings to reduce non-essential travel. Additionally, our offices have implemented a car-sharing scheme – a program that provides benefits and incentives when employees share a car for their commute.

We measure our sustainability performance by external, objective standards. We are a proud member of the Legal Sustainability Alliance, an inclusive movement of law firms committed to working collaboratively to improve the environmental sustainability of our operations and activities.

We are proud to announce that Martin Tolhurst Solicitors is now a signatory to the Greener Litigation Pledge, joining a growing list of law firms committed to minimising the environmental impact of our practice.

The Greener Litigation Pledge is an industry initiative which perfectly aligns with our internal efforts to reduce our footprint and work towards becoming a more sustainable business.

We recognise the importance of restricting global warming to 1.5°C, as identified by the 2015 Paris Agreement. The UK Climate Change Act sets greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets to achieve national net zero by 2050. As organisations involved in dispute resolution, we share an aspiration to reach the position where the most environmentally sustainable options in litigation become the default.

Green Habits

Going green isn’t something that only has to be done in our personal time. We can apply the concept of sustainability to every aspect of our life and everywhere that we go, and this includes our workplace too. There’s always something we can do that makes our work environment a little more earth-friendly.

Find out more about our Green Habits campaign.

Sustainable Commuting

 Bike2work and Car Sharing. Our bike2work program is growing and already has 2% of employees signing up to this scheme and choosing cycling as their daily commute option, resulting in reduced emissions and improved employee health. The car sharing program has reduced single-occupancy vehicles on the road with 5% of our employees using the scheme, halving the commuting based emissions amongst that group of staff, contributing to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions.

Paperless Training for Conveyancers and Solicitors.

The implementation of paperless working supported by paperless training has resulted in more than 85% of our fee earners embracing paperless working or transitioning to it, streamlining processes and reducing costs.  Other support teams such as Accounts and New Enquiries have also implemented paperless working. The majority of the paper we do use is 100% recycled and we encourage double sided and black & white printing when printing is absolutely necessary.  The increased uptake in paperless working across the firm results in positive effects in the supply chain  as we consume less printing based materials such as paper, toner, envelopes, staples and folders meaning less stationary deliveries and postage.

Adoption of Renewable Energy Providers. Our transition to a 100% renewable energy provider at our new Gillingham office has led to a significant reduction in our carbon footprint, positively impacting the environment. We will be seeking new energy suppliers for the other 3 offices on renewal too.

Energy Efficiency through LED Lighting

The installation of LED lighting in our Sittingbourne office has resulted in a remarkable 38% reduction in energy consumption at that office in the first full year following the installation, resulting in a reduction in our direct emissions. LED lighting replacement at our Ashford office and the remaining parts of our Longfield office not already equipped as such is scheduled for 2024.  The consolidation of two existing offices into a new office which is fully equipped with low energy LED lighting and PIR sensors in June 2023 is already resulting in lower net energy usage which can be more accurately measured after a full year.

Tree Planting Initiative - Small change, big impact!

Our Firm has recently begun a tree planting initiative. Read our latest press release.

Trees are so important as they clean our air and water, they provide homes for wildlife and contribute to our health and wellbeing and planting trees creates jobs for social impact too. Trees are also crucial in the fight against the climate crisis as they absorb harmful carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and every tree we plant will positively impact nature, people, and our planet.

Martin Tolhurst Solicitors is committed to environmental sustainability. We recognise that the house moving process adds to carbon footprint. We will therefore arrange to pay for, and plant a tree to help offset this process as our contribution towards reducing emissions. On completion we will provide our clients with an electronic certificate as confirmation this has been done.

THG (more:trees), a global tree planting not for profit organisation, will help us in this journey and to make a difference. To find out more about the initiative, visit their website.