Since 2003 Minter Ellison has had a formal commitment, endorsed by the firm’s partnership board, to operate in accordance with corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles.

We identified our people – the partners and staff of Minter Ellison – as the key stakeholders in determining our priorities for addressing a range of social and environmental issues.

We recognised that if we failed to address issues such as social disadvantage and environmental management we would place at risk our ability to attract and retain the best people. We also recognised that our clients were placing increasing emphasis on the CSR credentials of their supply chain, including professional services firms.

So, for us, our commitment to CSR is good for the community and good for business.

Our membership of the Public Interest Law Clearing House and the Australian Business & Community Network has assisted us in identifying our key social issues including homelessness and disadvantaged youth.

Our participation in Australia's Greenhouse Challenge has assisted us in identifying the most effective means of reducing and reporting our environmental footprint. We have also adopted the internationally recognised Greenhouse Gas Protocol as the basis for measuring our carbon emissions.

Senior executives within the firm have been allocated formal responsibility for specific CSR priorities:

• Community – Guy Templeton, Chief Executive
• Marketplace (clients) – Guy Templeton
• Environment – Nick Avery, Director, Minter Ellison Services
• Marketplace (supply chain) – Nick Avery
• Workplace (OH&S and employee issues) – Andrew Cunningham, Sydney Managing Partner
• Human Rights – Andrew Cunningham

The firm is governed by a Partnership Board elected by the partners. The Chief Executive and a management team including the firm's local Managing Partners are responsible for the firm's operations.

In 2003 and again in 2006 we asked our people via a comprehensive internal survey to provide their views on our social and environmental priorities – and to assess our performance. The firm's annual opinion survey provides staff with an opportunity to provide detailed feedback about corporate responsibility issues with particular emphasis on workplace issues. Feedback received from the opinion survey assists in shaping the firm's People Strategy.

Our CSR journey is outlined in the following article by our National Director, Pro Bono & Community Investment entitled Corporate Responsibility Index – Minter Ellison's road to implementing CSR.

Our feedback report for the 2006 Corporate Responsibility Index can be viewed by clicking here.

Highlights of our performance in 2006/07 include:

Community

We provided pro bono legal services to homeless and disadvantaged people via PILCH and outreach clinics with a combined commercial value of $1.3M (up from $990,000 last year). The participation rate of our lawyers in pro bono work was 48 per cent is 2006/07 (marginally down on the 51% result in 2005/06). Our target is to boost participation well beyond 50 per cent in the next reporting period.

A total of 105 partners and staff participated in student mentoring and support programs (up from 80 last year). This reflects our participation in new Australian Business and Community Network programs including GOALS and SPARK in addition to our long-term partnerships with schools including James Meehan High and Fawkner Secondary College.

In its second year of operation our matched workplace giving program, MatchME, grew by 60 per cent against the previous year's total. Our participation rate for MatchME grew from 7 per cent to 11 per cent in the year to September 2007. Our target is to reach a participation rate of at least 20 per cent.

Our target of increasing output in each of these key areas in 2006/07 was met.

Environment

Our goal is annual reductions in our carbon emissions of at least 5 per cent.

Through our Greenhouse Challenge action plan we have achieved the following results:

• 2004 – 8,151 tonnes CO2-e
• 2005 – 7,529 tonnes CO2-e (a reduction of 7.6 per cent)
• 2006 – 7,157 tonnes CO2-e (a further reduction of 4.9 per cent)

The full results of our Greenhouse Challenge action plan are available at: www.greenhouse.gov.au/challenge.

We will see further reductions in our carbon emissions in 2007 based on:

• the increase in our purchase of GreenPower from 10 per cent to 50 per cent from 1 July 2007; and
• the implementation of further energy reduction measures arising from our Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (ABGR) tenancy ratings.

We have also reduced our impact on the environment through paper consumption by:

• switching to 50 per cent recycled paper for all office printing and copying from 1 April 2007;
• implementing default duplex printing across the firm in 2007; and
• the planting of 2,600 trees by GreenFleet in April 2007 on behalf of Minter Ellison.

In 2006 we recycled 287 tonnes of material including paper, cardboard and co-mingled waste (up from 258 tonnes in 2005). Our 2006 effort represents a recycling rate of 57 per cent (based on waste to landfill of 216 tonnes). Our goal is to further boost our recycling rate in future periods.

We participate in Planet Ark's 'Close the Loop' initiative for toner cartridge recycling. Our twin objectives are to reduce our total consumption of toner cartridges and to maintain an average recycling rate of 100 per cent. Over four years we have met this target.

* Based on Lexmark products, representing 75% of our cartridge purchases

Marketplace

In 2006/07 we met our target of purchasing 10 per cent of our electricity needs from accredited GreenPower. From 1 July 2007 we increased our proportion of GreenPower to 50% of our total electricity needs.

We have also met our target of purchasing 50 per cent recycled paper for all printing and copying needs.

We also set a target of engaging our top 10 suppliers in a survey to shape our approach to Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM). All top 10 suppliers have responded to our initial SSCM survey and have engaged in a dialogue as part of our 'partnership' approach to sustainable purchasing.

The firm continues to engage in the development and growth of the wider legal profession through our membership of State-based Law Societies and our membership of the Law Council of Australia via the Large Law Firms' Group.

Workplace

The overall goal of Minter Ellison's People Strategy is as follows:

To attract and retain the very best people for whom we will provide a career experience that is rewarding for individuals and beneficial for our clients and the firm.

In 2006/07 we met our target of introducing the new Minter Ellison Performance Framework. The framework has now been rolled out across the entire firm with the aim of 100% of partners and staff completing a Performance & Development plan in 2007/08. The framework links performance appraisal to key result areas which are directly connected to the firm's core values.

The Minter Ellison Performance Framework builds on the results of the 2006/07 Minter Ellison opinion survey where our people expressed an overall satisfaction rate of 85 per cent.

In 2006/07 the firm's unscheduled absent days totalled 109 (down from 357 in 2005/06).

For further information about Minter Ellison's workplace culture visit our Careers site.