Greening of the "O"
In 2000, Orrick selected "O" with the Orrick green as our logo. Today the Orrick green embraces an additional meaning as the color that is most associated with the collective concerns of people, governments and businesses throughout the world for the protection of the environment and the sustainability of the earth's natural resources.
With offices in North America, Asia and Europe, Orrick accepts the responsibility of being a global corporate citizen and we proudly have a leadership role in the development of environmental preservation programs that are implemented firmwide, as well as tailored to the unique needs of local communities.
Our multi-faceted initiatives are designed to further green the "O" at Orrick, now and in the future.
Office Construction and Operation
- The Orrick Building in San Francisco is a LEED- (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building, which verifies that the building meets the highest green building and performance measures of sustainability, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. The building design includes a state-of-the-art HVAC system with the latest under-the floor energy efficient system.
- The new Orrick Washington, D.C., building was constructed with wood species from sustainable stock, and most finishes have recycled carpeting, padding, ceiling tiles and wall coverings. Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood is used in all casework and millwork with furniture and secretarial stations made of formaldehyde-free substrates. During construction, the office also implemented a construction waste management directive, which requires separating and sorting all construction waste for recycling and disposal.
- The Portland Orrick team resides in a "green" building, in which much of the casework is constructed from pressed and formed particle board consisting of harvested wheat stalks with an exterior finish of environmentally sound, water-based, non-pollutant products.
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Energy Conservation
- In the four-building Silicon Valley campus, the lighting system is equipped with motion sensors and is being converted from incandescent to high-efficiency, long-life fluorescent lamps.
- The Portland office has, among other features, light reflecting panels above each window to reduce artificial lighting needs and functioning windows to reduce the need for summer HVAC usage.
- The lighting system in Orrick's Washington, D.C., building is designed with unobstructed access to natural light in open public spaces, which brings light to nearly all interior spaces and reduces the building's electricity demands. Additionally, the building has energy efficient light fixtures with electronic ballasts in all offices and back-of-house spaces, as well as dual switched light fixtures in all offices to reduce the load during day-lighting times.
- Orrick's West Virginia-based Global Operations Center (GOC) installed catalytic converters on the building's emergency diesel generators to reduce harmful emissions.
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Indoor Environmental Quality
- All Orrick offices have chairs containing high-recycled content components and low volatile organic compound (VOC) emission, such as the Knoll "Life" chairs in the Washington, D.C., office, which are 70 to 80 percent recyclable.
- Orrick's New York office uses environmentally sensitive products for cleaning and low-emission materials for paint, wall coverings, adhesives and carpets.
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Community Service Partnerships
- Orrick's GOC donates all cardboard container discards to the Wheeling Area Training Center for the Handicapped (WATCH). Through the organization's sheltered workshop program, WATCH employees cut, bail and sell the cardboard to local businesses with proceeds directly benefiting the training center. WATCH also recycles aluminum cans for the GOC.
- The monetary reimbursement Orrick's London office receives from recycling used toner cartridges is donated to Cancer Research UK, the United Kingdom's leading cancer charity, and Scope, an organization focused on helping people with disabilities.
- By utilizing Salvation Army recycling programs, Orrick's Los Angeles and Orange County offices safely dispose of electronic waste such as printers, copy machines, fax machines and scanners.
- When replacing inventory such as chairs, fax machines and typewriters at the Sacramento office, Orrick donates the replaced items to the local Oak Ridge Elementary School.
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Recycling
- Orrick's Moscow, Rome and Milan offices collect paper, plastic, metal and glass for recycling, while other materials are donated to companies and organizations that can reuse them.
- In Orrick's New York office, paper, cardboard, plastic and aluminum, as well as unusable electronic waste (printers, fax machines, keyboards, etc.) are sorted and recycled.
- In one year, Orrick's San Francisco office purchased 120 tons of paper containing 30 percent post consumer waste material, and equally shredded and recycled 120 tons, saving the equivalent of 2,070 trees. The employee café composts all food waste, including coffee grounds, take-out food containers and beverage cups. Cooking oil, cardboard, bottles, cans, paper and electronic waste also are recycled.
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Firmwide Initiatives
- Orrick's firmwide initiatives include ink and toner cartridge recycling, water-conserving faucets, videoconferencing and teleconferencing to reduce travel, electronic distribution of management reports, newsletters and firmwide communications, power-conserving flat screen LCD monitors, and copiers, printers, monitors and computers with energy-efficient "sleep mode" functions.
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