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By Pat Barkley

Law Technology News

July 31, 2007

As CEO of Barkley Court Reporters, I was never very conscious of how our business affected the environment. I was aware of the global climate crisis, but felt somehow that it was someone else's problem to solve. How could a midsize court reporting firm in the legal industry have an impact on the climate?

It wasn't until 2005, when I began to travel overseas, that my perspective changed, and I saw firsthand the social and economic condititions that can precipitate global warming. I traveled to South India, where it was 98 degrees with 90 percent humidity, making living conditions atrocious, especially for the impoverished. In China, traffic congestion, pollution and smog were so bad that breathing was difficult. Bicyclists wear masks to protect themselves against the fierce pollution, which is steadily on the rise due to increased industrialization. In Cambodia, bicycles and rickshaws are being replaced with motorbikes and cars; it took 45 minutes in a taxi just to travel one city block.

I returned home with a fierce determination to do everything in my power to fight global warming. My first actions were personal: I traded in my Lexus for a Toyota Prius hybrid; and I invited an energy consultant from Southern California Edison to audit my Los Angeles home and offer recommendations on how to run a more energy-efficient household. I replaced appliances with energy-saving models and instituted a recycling program.

Still it was clear that further action was required. I considered what I could do as a business owner. Serving law firms, corporate general counsel and the entertainment industry, Barkley Court Reporters has nine offices on the West Coast and one in New York, plus a network affiliation with organizations throughout the U.S. and the world.

Our San Francisco office, with 10 staff members, took the lead in our company's green programs. We began from the ground up -- we now use remanufactured toner cartridges, and we have installed timers to turn off all computer equipment and air conditioning overnight. As we began to do our homework, we quickly realized our company's bigger impact on the environment.

For starters, we use paper by the case, to produce pleadings, deposition transcripts and exhibits, most with multiple copies. We calculated that our company alone uses more than 10 millions sheets of paper each year -- more than 50 tons!

According to the National Office Paper Recycling Project, in the U.S., more than 40 percent of municipal solid waste is paper: about 71.8 million tons each year. Paper in landfills produces methane, a greenhouse gas with 21 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide, New American Dream reports. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cites municipal landfills as the single largest source of methane emissions to the atmosphere and has identified the decomposition of paper as among the most significant sources of landfill methane.

Our first step was to switch from virgin to recycled paper. Paper, by definition, is a complex matted web of cellulose fibers, made by gathering the plant of choice, and beating it into a pulp. Water is added, until the pulp becomes "slurry." The slurry then is sifted against a screen until it forms an even layer. Once it dries, a sheet of paper is formed. Research by the Alliance for Environmental Innovation has shown that for each ton of recycled fiber that displaces a ton of virgin fiber used, total energy consumption is reduced by 27 percent; net greenhouse gas emission is reduced by 47 percent; particulate emissions are reduced by 28 percent; wastewater by 33 percent; solid waste by 54 percent; and wood use by 100 percent.

With this in mind, we decided to make some changes to our already existing Web site, to offer confidential, online access to transcripts and exhibits, via our BarkleyWeb. It took six months of dedicated IT-person hours to add additional security and create a more user-friendly, accessible Web site, where clients feel confident accessing their transcripts and exhibits. Our VeriSign-secured Web site provides our clients with instant online access to transcripts and exhibits from anywhere in the world. Users can print specific pages of the transcript for immediate use, and when they need a printed certified copy, we provide one at no additional charge, using recycled products.

Our hope is that attorneys will come to recognize the benefits and ease of using and maintaining electronic files (especially clients who travel frequently) rather than carrying around printed copies of everything. We hope to soon offer an electronic-signature feature, so court reporters can electronically certify their transcripts.

As an added incentive, we have also initiated a tree planting campaign. Every time a client purchases a paperless transcript, we will work with American Forests to plant a tree in the name of the participating firm or client. The trees are being planted in one of California's many protected forests, which have been damaged or destroyed by fire.

Over the past year, our San Francisco office has worked closely with the Bay Area Green Business Program, which has established a certification program. The organization is a partnership of environmental agencies and utility companies, and its program aims to assist, recognize and promote businesses and government agencies that operate in an environmentally responsible way.

To be certified green, participants must comply with all regulations and meet program standards for conserving resources, preventing pollution and minimizing waste, and working closely with their local utility companies to establish green business practices. About 850 businesses and public agencies have been certified since 1996.

By applying these simple and cost-saving measures, in addition to offering our clients the choice of receiving paperless transcripts online, we hope to make a huge difference and encourage other small business and the legal industry to follow our example.

Pat Barkley is the chief executive officer of Barkley Court Reporters, based in Los Angeles. You may contact him at PatB@Barkley.com