« Interview with Tom Szaky, CEO and founder of TerraCycle | Main | Deviants Unite! »
Interview with Jonathan Storper, Partner, Hanson Bridgett
Hanson Bridgett is a San Francisco-based law firm that has taken an innovative approach not only in being a greener business - but also raising its profile as a sustainable business leader in the community.
Jonathan Storper, partner and chair of the sustainable business practice at Hanson Bridgett, explains both the business and personal benefits of becoming a more sustainable law firm - and the how they’ve overcome the challenges that come up on the journey to sustainability.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
- Why sometimes the greatest challenge to being more sustainable is employee resistance - and what to do about it
- What is a “B Corporation” and why Hanson Bridgett became one
- Why using china instead of biogradable plates became a big challenge
- Jonathan explains how competition is good for (green) business!
LISTEN NOW (press play below)
TRANSCRIPT
PATRICK DOMINGUEZ, GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Hello this is Patrick Dominguez from Green Business Innovators and I am here speaking with Jonathan Storper, who is a partner at Hanson Bridgett, and a chair of the sustainable business practice at Hanson Bridgett.
I will do a short introduction about Hanson Bridgett.
Hanson Bridgett has been a law firm here in San Francisco since 1958 and it has over 130 attorneys today. The thing that really motivated me to want to come over and speak with Jonathan today is Hanson Bridgett’s innovative approach to green business. One, it’s impressive efforts to be a more sustainable business, but secondly what strikes me really as being unique is Hanson Bridgett’s efforts to engage the San Francisco Bay area community to engage businesses here to be more sustainable. So, welcome Jonathan.
JONATHAN STORPER: Thank you, nice to be here.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: And is there anything you want to add to what I had to say about your law firm?
JONATHAN STORPER: You’re right, we have been around. This is our 50th anniversary year and we’ve been an integral part of the San Francisco Bay Area legal practice for that many years. This is a new exciting opportunity for us to engage businesses who have a mission and we’re happy to be a part of it.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Why did Hanson Bridgett decide to take bigger steps to be a more sustainable business? Was this a business decision or did it happen organically?
JONATHAN STORPER: I think it happened as a business decision. The reality is that about 2 years ago, our business group got together and had a strategic planning meeting where we tried to decide, in essence, what we want to be when we grow up? What does the next generation want to do, what are our new partners and associates looking to do, how will they be able to benefit their practice and make it meaningful. Part of that is understanding who we represent, what our skill set is, the geographical location we live in, what kinds of opportunities are here and how can we be a part of it.
Looking around at the economy and looking around at the skill set we had throughout the firm and our own values, we realized that we were already representing a number of sustainable businesses in different sectors of the economy - in construction, in government, in business, in emerging technologies, in investment funds, etc. We just hadn’t thought about it as sustainable. We thought about it in a more traditional way that lawyers view clients, that is - construction, public agencies, or emerging companies or investment vehicles,
But what we began to see is that with the growth of the new economy, which I think is centered here in Northern California among other areas of the country, that there was a new emerging kind of economy that was growing and that we could be a part of it and that we had a skill set to help clients in the area.
As a part of that, we sort of had an “a-ha moment” where we realized that we could do more internally about how we could be more sustainable and we started investigating how we could do that. Because one of the things that is important to us is if we are going to represent clients in the area that we also, as they say, it’s a terrible cliché, but that we also “walk the talk”. It was all very natural frankly, it’s a bit of serendipity, but it was all very natural for us because it works very well into who we are as a firm. The values that we share. We are very community oriented. We are a very philanthropic-oriented. We had a long history of representing both not only for profit, but also non-profit corporations, so that those companies that have a social mission or an environmental mission or a public service mission are very at-home here with us.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: So you decided to become a San Francisco certified green business. Could you talk about why you decided to go for that certification and what the benefits are to Hanson Bridgett?
JONATHAN STORPER: Sure. First, as I said before, we wanted to try to be emblematic of the kinds of companies we were also representing. So we hired a consultant to come in. We took a survey as to what our practices were internally. We worked with the city of San Francisco in trying to understand what its current policies were for companies that were housed in an office building. We worked with building management in terms of what opportunities there were to be more sustainable, as well as our own purchasing practices and the way our employees act. And so, that’s the kind of survey we did, the kind of thinking we try to undertake to try to get a grasp on. To some extent I don’t think we really knew what we did and how that was sustainable or not. So part of it was an internal education and trying to found out what the possibilities were.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Hmmm. Almost like an audit?
JONATHAN STORPER: Yeah, exactly. We did an audit essentially and we found some things were easy to do and some things weren’t so easy to do. We had to work at it.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: So getting the Green Business Certification from the city of San Francisco is kind of like a seal of approval for you as a business?
JONATHAN STORPER: Right, and I think every most local areas have their own sort of seal of approval and part of the issue was just trying to find out if there was one uniform standard, and my sense is that there is not. There are different sorts of standards, but we thought the best one for us was San Francisco since we are located here.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: How long did it take to go through this process?
JONATHAN STORPER: A year, from the beginning. And the reason is probably less about what we needed to do, and more about just in terms of scheduling time with the various departments from the city who come, they also do an audit. They come and they audit you and they try to understand your practices and then they make suggestions. Then you go and make corrections and so those things are just due diligence items that take time.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: And can you give us a sense of how much effort it required from your firm to go through this process?
JONATHAN STORPER: Some things were easy and some things were not so easy. I say that both from a practical perspective, but also from a political perspective too and I mean internal politically.
So, for instance it was easy to get rid of bottled water. We had spent a lot of money on bottled water for clients and our own people at the firm. All we really had to do was to put filters on our water outlets and get sufficient glasses and so forth. Politically internally, some people grumbled about it. They liked the convenience of walking to the refrigerator and picking out a bottled water. They liked being able to hand that to their clients and having it set up. So, just in terms of getting people used to doing something different - change is hard for people and educating people about how easy it might be to do something different, that is much more sustainable, nevertheless took some time and education. So, that was an easy thing in some sense.
One of the harder things that we’ve had to do frankly was negotiating with the city of San Francisco about double-sided printing. All of our printers in the firm, which are very expensive printers, you know we have many, many of them and they are very expensive to replace. They first wanted us to do all printing on double-sided. Well, as a law firm we are prevented actually from filing [double-sided] briefs with the courts. They want single-sided. They haven’t caught up to the world yet. The courts, I hope that they will do that, but they don’t allow you to print and to file briefs double-sided. So, we had to negotiate with the city and educate the city actually about what we are required to do as lawyers by rules of court. And so, our compromise is that we would set our printers on a default for double-sided, and we would buy the mechanism that would allow current printers to do that and we are in the process of implementing that now. Bug when we file with the court we have to file, until the court rules change, we have to file single-sided. So, that was something that required actually some education of the city from us, and then from their part from the city to us, about how we might be able to change our printers.
The other thing that was probably a hard thing to do was because there is no composting in this building, just because that when the building was built and how the building operates - we were not actually able to continue to use biodegradable plates and cups and utensils. The city wanted us to switch to real live china and utensils. Well, that sounds nice in some sense. I mean we save some money. You purchase the china once and then you don’t have to purchase it again and biodegradable plates you do purchase.
The problem is we are a law firm. We are not a restaurant. So, everyday when people eat and drink, there is nowhere to wash. We don’t have kitchen facilities, the kind of kitchen facilities that a restaurant would have, which is substantially different than the kinds of kitchen facilities that you have in a class-A building like this. So, after we implemented it, while we found that we initially were saving money on buying the biodegradable plates and cups and this and that - we had and impossible task of trying to wash hundreds of plates everyday. So we are in the process of actually getting commercial dishwashers which are very expensive which wash these things apparently in 1 minute or less. We’ve had to teach our staff how to set up and how to clean up in a way that they didn’t have to [before]. So, in the end we think long-term it will actually save us money, but in the short-term it’s cost a little bit more money and it’s taken some effort to work it through and again education is always the key.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: So, what are the biggest impacts that a law firm has on the environment? Is it the paper?
JONATHAN STORPER: Paper. I think it’s paper if I were to pick one thing - paper would be the number one thing. Lawyers love paper and we have done two things to reduce paper. One is, as I talked about earlier, to make the printing that we do double-sided. Two, to encourage people through e-mail and other policy matters not to print unless they have to.
And the third thing that we are doing is implementing a new software program called FileSite. And what FileSite does is it allows you to electronically file the e-mail and all the documents that you produce electronically. So, instead of me getting an e-mail from a client and as a risk management or opposing counsel as a risk management matter printing that, sending it to a physical file, which then fills up our space in our physical file room, I can send that electronically into the electronic file and keep it all electronically, and organize and index. Which actually from a risk management perspective is actually a better thing, not withstanding the impact on the environment and the ease of which we can reduce labor costs from having physical files. And also from being able to retrieve electronically rather than having to get up and go into a physical file room and retrieve a file which can be lost or missing some way.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: So, that is a case where there is a practical business benefit as well as an environmental benefit.
JONATHAN STORPER: Absolutely both. It’s very important from a risk management perspective that we keep our files secure, that we have a record of what we’ve said and actually it’s from a risk management perspective I understand it is better to do this electronically than to have a physical file. So, we still have physical files and we necessarily use them, but we are beginning to move over and this has an enormous benefit for the environment, both because we produce less paper that has to be disposed of ultimately and because it costs us less money because we buy less paper. Actually it will end up being I think quite a cost savings for us.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Do you have any sense of how much paper you use in a year as a firm?
JONATHAN STORPER: You know it’s a statistic I don’t know, but suffice to say it’s an awful lot. I mean it really is an awful lot. Lawyers love their papers and that is what we do. We read and we write. And we are either writing articles and writing books and writing briefs and writing contracts or we are reading a lot too. So whatever we can do to cut down on the paper is an enormous savings of money and enormous savings on the environment.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: I am curious if the different sort of sustainable business practices that you have implemented, if they involve your staff having to do something different and that involves more work in there day-to-day - or is it more in the background like printing double-sided paper? It seems like you set the printer on a certain setting and then people just go.
JONATHAN STORPER: I think at first it probably is more work because it is based on habit. So if you are in the habit of going to the refrigerator, for instance, and getting a bottled water rather than having a cup - then maybe you think it is taking more effort. But, what the firm did for instance with the water was we issued everybody a Hanson Bridgett mug so it can be hot or cold and you can always have it at your desk and you can fill it with coffee or water and we make sure that we have ice. And for our meetings we have a picture of water and that’s a small matter.
On the paper, yes I think it probably does take a little bit of change particularly with frankly with some partners who are use to doing their practice in a certain way and so change is hard. But all of this is about education. I think once people start doing something different, whether it be double-sided paper or having new china or making sure the light switches turn off automatically when you go out.
I think all of those things are change through education and become a habit that after you start doing it, it’s just as easy as what you did before. And you begin to forget what you even did before. It’s just a matter of that change over and yes, some people grumbled about some changes we made. And now the grumbling has stopped because they have been educated and because they have done it for awhile and they realize it’s really not a big deal. In fact, some of it is easier for them.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: So you have been able to engage the skeptics?
JONATHAN STORPER: I think so. I think the staff in particular is very enthusiastic about the changes we’ve made. I think lawyers are trained to be skeptical. That’s in their nature. There are some all across the gamut. There are people like me who are very enthusiastic about what we are doing. There are some older lawyers that are less enthusiastic, but the one thing that does make a difference is when you can show people a business reason for doing good work they’re always enthusiastic. And so it’s been good for us, it’s been good for our clients, it’s been good for our public relations and it’s frankly been good for the bottom line. We are going to save a lot of money and all of that falls right to the bottom line for a law firm like ours. I mean if you’re buying less bottled water and you’re saving money on paper and you’re saving money on electricity - all of that is to the benefit ultimately of the owners.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: I think this is great news for any people from the legal community listening to this, which is all of these efforts not only are better for the environment, but they save money.
JONATHAN STORPER: Absolutely. I think the key really is education and working with the vendors and your building management and your other suppliers to try to source the kinds of services and products that you need that will ultimately benefit the company or benefit the law firm and also save you money in the long run.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: How about the cost in terms of attorney time? It’s not taking your lawyers away from billable hours?
JONATHAN STORPER: The initial time is. The lawyers were the people that started this; myself and other partners of the firm thought this was important. We pushed the firm to do this. We participated directly in discussions with getting green certified and also frankly from what we needed to learn in terms of benefiting clients and how the firm’s green certification and other practices we did would help us teach our clients and work with our clients. So, yes in terms of research time or up-time.
But we are beginning to see the fruits of our labor as well from increased revenue because we are attracting clients who are interested in having lawyers who share their values. So, it’s been a very good promotional tool, as well as a practical tool. It’s increased our skill in the law.
It’s also been a very good staff recruiting and lawyer recruiting tool as well. Our summer associates who come from law schools are interested to know that they are at a progressive law firm that’s interested in doing right by the community and the environment. That helps differentiate us in the eyes of law students who are frankly probably the most important resource that we have. Without smart students being attracted to this firm, the firm ultimately dies. So, it’s important that we have very, very well qualified students who are ultimately interested in coming to this firm so that we can compete in the marketplace.
Also, our staff has started a green committee and they took over where the lawyers left off. We sort of started this, but the reality is it’s the staff who formed a committee and they meet every month. They look into new ways in which the firm can make changes and they also hold a once-a-month internal education for staff and lawyers on different practices that people can learn to be better at sustainability in their own lives, as well as here in the firm. So, we have had various in-house education seminars on water, how pure the water is that we drink, where you can buy products that are less toxic, how you can use those and finding out interesting things like it’s actually cheaper to buy those products or to make the products at home rather than to go buy toxic products that are harmful to the environment, as well as to people and animals.
So, it’s really the staff that’s embraced this in a way that’s continuing to make a difference for us as well and has actually I believe increased morale around the firm. Because it is nice to come to a place to where not only you do good work for your clients, but you also believe in the values that firm espouses. It makes people more happy to come to work.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: And the sustainability committee, is there a kind of leader of this? How was it organized?
JONATHAN STORPER: Staff. Lawyers participate, myself and a couple of other partners are a part of it, but the reality is it’s the staff that’s taking the lead. One of our office managers, Rachel Patterson has been heavily involved in this and doing the research and encouraging staff to participate and then various different staff have participated. Lawyers participate as well, but like I say, it is really the staff that has lead the effort and anybody can join the committee. It’s open to everyone and there are secretaries and paralegals and other kinds of staff who are part of the committee.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: It’s great to see that sort of engagement across the firm.
JONATHAN STORPER: Yeah, it’s wonderful actually.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: So, we’ve talked about your internal efforts to be a more sustainable business yourselves. Let’s talk more about your external efforts and your outreach. One of the things that I have actually had a chance to participate in is your sustainable business forum. So, could you talk a little bit about how you decided to start that activity?
JONATHAN STORPER: Well, lawyers are notorious for doing good service for clients that they are engaged to provide services to, but one thing that we thought both from an education perspective and in a way also to differentiate our firm from other firms we wanted to figure out a way to reach out and help people day-to-day and to bring the business community together with thought leaders in the area and hopefully create a place, a community, frankly, for sustainability in San Francisco that would make a difference.
And how this came about was - several of my partners and I go to different conferences, and what we found in the last few years is that there really is a hunger to learn more about this area in terms of energy savings and mission related businesses and how various businesses can incorporate these principles, but also make a profit and make a difference. And we thought there really wasn’t enough information out there and we thought we could make a difference.
So what we do every month is we bring in thought leaders from a particular area of the government or business on a particular area that we think is interest to the business community. We invite the business community to come and we have a seminar about it. And it’s also an opportunity for the business community to meet each other and frankly hopefully to either solve some problems or make contacts that will allow them to do better business in the Bay Area. And they’ve been on all sorts of topics, from green lending to alternative energy to venture capital, microfinance. Next month, we are having the State Treasurer, Bill Lockyer, he will come in and talk about the state of the green economy and what the state of California is investing in. So that the business community can learn to be a part of that.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: And I can attest that I have met some great people at these events as well. The quality of the speakers that you have and the attendees is quite high. Has this been helpful for you as a business?
JONATHAN STORPER: Absolutely. It’s very hard I think for any business to differentiate itself from any other business. And there are many, many good lawyers in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
One way we thought we could differentiate ourselves is to do something that was different - to try to do some value added service for clients and for contacts. And so, having these forums is a way for us to provide some service back to the community, but also for people to have a chance to meet us and to get to know us in a more intimate setting. So, I think having a lawyer as a trusted advisor is just as important. It’s a kind of thing you that you have a personal relationship with your lawyer the way you do your doctor or your priest or your rabbi. So having a more intimate setting where people can come and meet us and get to know us and see what we are like and what values we have and what kind of lawyers we are I think is very important for promotional purposes and we’ve met some great clients by doing this as well. In fact, I have a meeting with a potential client today at lunch. Who came to one of our forums, who is doing some very, very interesting engineering work in the area of sustainable energies.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: So, let’s talk about your sustainable business practice. As a firm people can go to Hanson Bridgett’s website and there is a sustainable business practice area. Can you talk a little bit about what you do there?
JONATHAN STORPER: Sure. We are a full-service firm and so we have lawyers that do work in construction, government relations, business, insurance, management, intellectual property, litigation and various other areas that you might need in business. In what I will call green business, I think some of the hot areas right now are construction with LEED certification and we have a very full service construction and real estate practice that works with companies, architects and other design professionals on LEED certified projects. Our business department works with a emerging companies and other sorts of mature companies that are interested in this area that work on alternative energy, green investment funds and other socially responsible investment vehicles. Our government lawyers work with policy makers at public agencies and in the legislature with regard to policies and legislation that would be helpful from a governmental perspective in terms of regulation. So, for instance one of the things we worked on with the city recently was policy that the city implemented in its building code to require new and refitted buildings to have dual plumbing systems so that they could use recycled water, reclaimed water, and that’s one of the things we have been very pleased to work on. I’m working actually with Assemblyman Leno’s office on a piece of legislation to make it easier for corporations and corporate directors to make socially responsible decisions. That’s been voted positively out of the assembly and is up for a vote later in August on the Senate floor. So, those are some of the things that we do at the firm. We represent businesses. We represent government. We represent investment firms and vehicles in terms of making a positive social environmental impact.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: I was just at your clean tech seminar last month, and I would imagine that you’d also be doing some work with those sorts of firms.
JONATHAN STORPER: Oh absolutely. We do work with venture capital, angel groups who we represent and we also work with emerging companies that needs those kinds of funding and various different areas of clean tech including alternative energy, energy management, as well as some utilities like Pacific Gas & Electric who are a client of ours and we work with them on them on their smart AC programs and other clean energy programs. And we also work with a number of green investment vehicles, as well as other sorts of various low LOHAS companies and other emerging companies, emerging technology companies in software that are all having an impact in sustainability.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Another innovative thing that Hanson Bridgett is doing is you’ve decided to become a B Corporation.
JONATHAN STORPER: Yes.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: So could you for the people in the audience who don’t know what that is could you talk a little bit about what that is and then why you decided to become one of those?
JONATHAN STORPER: Sure. Well, we are a founding B Corporation and we are a law firm not a corporation so it’s a little bit of a misnomer, but there is a group called B Lab and their mission - and they’re 501(c)3 charity - is to empower for profit companies in terms of encouraging them to be triple bottom line, that is obviously for profit, but also the two other bottom lines are environmentally progressive and socially responsible. And it was something that we wanted to do because again in terms of how we want to walk the talk that we do.
It was actually rather easy for us to do because we are already doing many of the things that B Lab encourages for profit businesses to do. Treat your employees right, try to do right by the community and try to do right by the environment and what you do as a procedural matter is you incorporate into your governing documents the principles of being triple bottom line. That is pro for profit, but also socially and environmentally responsible. There’s quite a long survey that they require you to fill out. You must pass their certification test, if you will, and even in the first round just because of who we are we came out with a very, very high score. So, there really wasn’t anything we had to do because we had already thought about it, but I think what this does is - it’s drawing the community together with other like-minded businesses. And there is both a social reason and responsibly social reason we are doing it.
It’s because we want to obviously encourage that in our own firm and businesses and the economy generally, but we also like being able to play with other companies that are doing this as well. Again, it’s good business if you’re sharing the kind of values that other companies share. And if those are the kinds of companies you want to represent, then being able to be in a group with those kinds of companies is very important from a revenue generation perspective, from a promotional perspective.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: So, there is a range of activities that your firm is doing to engage the community and to inspire businesses to be more sustainable. Are you finding that this is one of your top marketing strategies for reaching the sort of businesses that would want to work with a sustainable business?
JONATHAN STORPER: Yeah it is. I think it’s something that the firm as a whole, we started in our business practice group, but it’s something that’s spreading throughout our firm because it’s the right thing to do first of all. It’s a good thing for us to do as a business as well, but it’s the right thing to do.
I think we are finding sustainability and these kinds of issues are becoming very important to consumers and whether you’re a mature company, you’re an emerging company, you’re an investor that wants to invest in the latest thing, all of these sorts of things are coming together in a place and in a geography in this area that’s making important for any law firm to understand the issues of sustainability and better practices for the environment. And we are finding that it’s been a very, very good thing for the firm and I think it’s only going to increase as this part of the economy increases.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Now, how do you think about competition? Other firms that are out there could try to follow in your sustainable footprints so to speak?
JONATHAN STORPER: I think the more the merrier. I think it’s good for everybody. There is enough of this to go around. This is a part of the economy that’s only has to grow. I always at least for law firms I would certainly rather deal with competent counsel who understand the area, than counsel that do not. It makes it better for both sides in any transaction to have lawyers and other consultants and experts who understand the area. So, I welcome the competition. I think this is just an area that’s going to grow and welcome all businesses and lawyers in the community to undertake these kinds of steps.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: That’s a great approach. So, with that said, what advice would you give to other law firms or to the legal community about going more green?
JONATHAN STORPER: Well, two things. One thing that we found that really we’ve heard from clients that differentiates us from others is many firms, traditional firms, think of a sustainable deal as just another high technology deal or another widget, just another deal, but it isn’t because there are differences in the people you are dealing with to some extent, there is differences in the transaction. So, I would say look really carefully at what the clients are trying to do. It’s not just make money - and it’s primarily to make money - but it often is more than that. It’s mission related and trying to understand as any good lawyer does or any good consultant what the mission of your client is very important to be successful and to do good work for your client.
I think the other thing that we realized that we had to do was to look internally at ourselves at what we’re doing. What we’re doing as a firm. When we go home, what we do. That not only helps us with clients, but also helps us save money and do right by the environment. So, it’s been actually an eye opener for us. I think we’ve learned a lot. We’ve grown a lot as a firm. We’ve been able to do new and interesting work and it’s really been a win-win for us. So, it’s been wonderful.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: How has the work you been doing been inspirational to you when you are doing your day-to-day work?
JONATHAN STORPER: So, for me personally it’s been a great benefit. You can come to work and you can represent all sorts of clients. Clients that you may agree with and clients you may not agree with - but it certainly makes the day-to-day practice of law much more interesting and satisfying when you share the mission and share the values of your clients. And, I think being able to have the skill set and work with clients who are doing great things in the market place and trying to change the world and provide good services and products which are both socially and environmentally beneficial has been a great boon to, frankly, the lawyers in the firm from the perspective of their own practice. And also psychologically being able to come to work and work on really good and inspirational values-driven, mission-driven kinds of related work. It’s also been something I think that’s had some intangible benefits for even the lawyers that don’t work day-to-day [in the sustainable business practice]. And our managing partner mentioned in the partners meeting the other day some of the changes in direction that we’ve made and how it’s made a difference in direction for the firm and I think that was received very favorably by the partners.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: What are they saying?
JONATHAN STORPER: Well, I think that some people who wondered aloud whether being environmentally friendly or trying to reach out to environmental causes really made a good business sense are beginning to change their mind. I think lawyers are very conservative by nature and risk averse. So taking a new direction, or it was seen as a new direction, is also seen as somewhat risky. And people wondered out loud at the beginning of whether did this really make sense for us, was this taking away from our core work. And I think what they are beginning to realize is it’s going to be our core work because of what we want to do and who we are and the geography we live in. The fact that this is the center of the green economy. And it is only going to grow, and so it makes very good business sense and it’s very good for us I think in terms of being able to attract and maintain and recruit lawyers who want to do good work.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Yeah. Earlier, I heard you use the word invigorating.
JONATHAN STORPER: Yeah. It is very invigorating. I mean I’m very personally excited about it. I love what we’re doing. I love the direction that our business group is taking. I love the fact that other areas of the firm are practicing in this area and that we are all being able to actually work more together collectively together on related issues. So, it’s been a very invigorating part of my practice.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Are there any other parting thoughts you would like to share with our audience?
JONATHAN STORPER: Well, I say just even if you a small thing, even if you are recycling now and you get another been and put it underneath next to your other trash can, underneath your sink, that’s a whole lot more than what you did before yesterday. And so, every little bit really does help and I would encourage people to begin to look at this because it’s not only good thing for others in the environment, but it’s going to end up probably a money saver one way or the other. And I think that’s been a surprise to find that out, but I really do think it ends up benefiting the bottom line of your pocketbook as well as benefiting society.
GREEN BUSINESS INNOVATORS: Okay, well Jonathan I want to thank you for your business insights and your inspirational thoughts.
JONATHAN STORPER: My pleasure.
Comments