The Houston office of Liskow & Lewis has been named a winner of the Houston Young Lawyers Association Environmental Challenge. The Challenge, held March 1st through May 1st, was designed to help reduce much of the waste and environmental inefficiencies that are pervasive in legal offices.
The HYLA Challenge encouraged participating companies to focus on environmentally-friendly practices such as recycling, utilizing energy efficient techniques, eliminating paper/styrofoam cups, or printing jobs on double-sided or recycled paper. The HYLA Challenge included three categories for participating companies: small company (1 to 11 employees), medium company (11 to 60 employees) or large company (employees greater than 60). A HYLA Challenge committee selected the winners based on the most significant progress made by a company in each category. Liskow & Lewis was named winner of the medium office category. Other winners included Terry & Thweatt (small office) and Chaffe McCall (large office). In honor of their achievement, the winners all received plaques made out of recycled or environmentally friendly materials.
At Liskow & Lewis, the Challenge was managed by associate Marie Carlisle who provided bi-weekly updates, via e-mail of course, to the HYLA Environmental Challenge Committee. The Houston office is just over a year old and was designed with many environmentally friendly options which included the installation of motion detectors for all but emergency lighting, single stream recycling of paper, plastic, aluminum, glass and cardboard provided through our building management, a multimedia conference room allowing our clients and attorneys to hold meetings/presentations without requiring participants to travel, and equipping the restrooms with motion sensors to reduce water usage. Liskow & Lewis’ progress during the Challenge included checking all motion detectors in our lighting and repairing/replacing those that were not working properly, turning off decorative lighting in the office unless we are hosting clients or large meetings, requesting that attorneys print using both sides of the paper, requesting that attorneys turn off computer monitors when not in use, encouraging the use of firm or personal glassware rather than Styrofoam cups, working with building management to encourage the janitorial staff to turn off lights each night as they leave the office, and increasing the number of recycling bins available around the office.
Award winners were recognized at the May HYLA Final Thursday on Thursday, May 29. All 2008 Environmental Challenge participants included:
Baker Botts L.L.P.; Beck Redden & Secrest; Berg & Androphy; Doyle, Restrepo, Harvin & Robbins; Epstein Becker & Green; First American Title Commercial; Fluor Daniel; Gardere Wynne Sewell; Godwin Pappas Ronquillo, L.L.P.; Harris County District Attorney's Office; Haynes and Boone, L.L.P.; Liskow & Lewis; Mark Oehl, Attorney at Law; Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman; Powers & Frost; Terry & Thweatt; Vivica Simmons, Attorney at Law; and Weycer Kaplan Pulaski & Zuber, P.C.
The HYLA Environmental Challenge was founded by President Julie Baumgarten as she looked around her office before and said, "Look at all this waste! Surely there's something HYLA can do!"