Green EIP

We are pleased to announce that the following firms have agreed to participate in the 2012 Green EIP Interview Program:

Allen & Overy (New York, NY)
Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton (New York, NY)
DLA Piper (Boston, MA; New York, NY; San Francisco, CA)
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (New York, NY)
Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson (New York, NY; Washington, DC)
Foley Hoag (Boston, MA; Washington, DC)
Linklaters (New York, NY)
Miller Nash (Portland, OR)
Squire Sanders (Cleveland, OH)
Sullivan & Cromwell (New York, NY)
Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C. (Boston, MA)

Purpose

Harvard Law School’s Green Early Interview Program (“Green EIP”) is a student-led program in collaboration with the Office of Career Services and the Office for Sustainability.  Green EIP is designed to provide an easy way for socially responsible firms to reduce the environmental impacts of the interviewing process. Each fall hundreds of firms fly interviewers to campus, distribute promotional materials to students, and fly students to the firms’ locations for callback interviews. Environmental impacts from this process include the emission of greenhouse gases from transportation and the generation of paper waste.

Green EIP recognizes firms seeking to minimize their environmental impact by taking the simple steps of purchasing carbon offsets for travel, reducing paper waste associated with promotional handouts, and reducing general waste in hospitality suites. Publicizing these efforts to the student body raises student awareness of the connection between global environmental issues and on-campus interviewing. Most importantly, Green EIP encourages students to consider more closely those firms that have demonstrated a commitment to environmental responsibility.

Participation

Green EIP is only open to firms interviewing students through Harvard Law School’s 2012 Early Interview Program. Firms with multiple offices may participate either as a single entity or as individual branches.

Firms that participate in the resume collection and do not send interviewers to campus are still eligible if they agree to offset the emissions from student travel to the employer’s location. Firms located within driving distance of HLS can participate as long as they agree to offset the emissions from car travel. Firms that conduct all interviews via teleconference or phone can still participate.

To enroll in Green EIP, sign up when registering for the Early Interview Program with the Office for Career Services.  Early enrollment is encouraged to ensure that firm names are included in all Green EIP communications to students; however firms may join the program up by e-mailing GreenEIP@law.harvard.edu by July 6, 2012.

Participant Obligations

To become an HLS Green EIP firm, a firm must agree to meet three simple obligations:

1. Purchase greenhouse gas offsets from a Green EIP approved offset provider for all estimated firm plane and car travel associated with the HLS EIP interviewing process. This includes all travel (round trip flights or car travel) of firm representatives to HLS in order to conduct interviews or organize firm receptions. Offsets do not have to be purchased for travel by train, bus, or subway. For simplicity, offsets also do not have to be purchased for car travel to and from airports. See Section II for detailed instructions on purchasing offsets and a list of pre-approved providers.
2. Limit the distribution of paper recruiting materials to one double-sided sheet per student. This limit pertains to materials distributed during on-campus interviews and firm receptions located in the HLS vicinity. This limit does not apply to business cards or to gift items that typically feature the firm logo such as pens, zip drives, umbrellas, etc (although firms are welcome and encouraged to curtail giveaways).
3. Reduce waste generated at hospitality suites and firm receptions by replacing bottled water with pitchers and reusable cups.

Means of Promoting Green EIP Firms

Green EIP promotes law firms that participate in the program as “Green EIP Firms” to the HLS student body. Promotion will consist of:

• Listing the name of each Green EIP firm on a webpage on the Office of Career Services website.
• E-mailing 2L and 3L students before first-round bidding with a list of participating Green EIP firms.
• Sharing a special HLS Green EIP logo with firms to use for their own promotion.
• Seeking exposure in local media.
• Utilizing social media sources to raise student awareness of Green EIP and participating firms, including providing participating firms with space on the Green EIP Facebook and Twitter page to share links and information.
• Providing firms with the opportunity to link to their CSR/Sustainability reports to promote their socially & environmentally responsible activities.
• Displaying the names of Green EIP firms at EIP events at the Charles Hotel. 

Instructions for Purchasing Offsets

Offset purchases must be made by July 18, 2012 in order to participate in 2012 Green EIP. However, firms that want to be listed as Green EIP firms in first-round bidding information sent to students should purchase offsets by April 30, 2011.  Because the purchase must be made before travel occurs, the amount in offsets each firm purchases should be the projected amount of air and car travel associated with HLS interviewing. Estimates based on the previous year’s travel are encouraged.

The entire process should take less than ten minutes. Step-by-step instructions for purchasing offsets:

1. Gather information to estimate travel.  This includes the number of roundtrip flights associated with the firm’s HLS interviewing (using either the previous year’s number or projected numbers for 2012), the trips’ beginning and ending points, and total mileage (for car travel).
2. Purchase offsets equivalent to the estimated travel from a Green EIP approved offset provider and purchase offsets equivalent to the estimated travel.  Detailed instructions for navigating the website of each provider are listed immediately below for those who are new to using offset providers.
3. E-mail an electronic receipt/confirmation of the purchase to GreenEIP@law.harvard.edu. If you do not receive an electronic receipt, please e-mail a notification of your purchase.

How to Navigate Offset Provider Websites

There are many offset providers; here are a few we recommend. To read more about how these firms were selected, read below. Firms are strongly encouraged to use one of the Green EIP approved offset providers to maximize the impact of their financial contribution.

Climate Friendly
For Air Travel:

• Click on “Personal”
• Click on “Calculate my footprint” or “Personal calculators”
• Click on the “Air Travel” tab
• Enter departure and arrival city, cabin class and number of flights
• Click on “Add”  button to the right of flight information
• Click on “Go to Cart” on bottom-right
• Register an account and check out  
  

For Car Travel:    

• Click on “Buy Carbon Offsets – Personal Offsets”    
• Click on the tab “Cars”
• Check the box “Single Trip” and enter the car engine size and distance driven(enter 150 cubic inches for engine size, which is roughly equivalent to a 2.5L engine)
• Click on “Add to Cart”
• Click on “View Cart” on the right hand side of the page
• Click on “Checkout”
  

Native Energy
Note that payment is in Australian dollars only
For Air Travel:

• Click on the “Carbon Calculator” tab at the top of the page.
• Click on “Travel Calculator” on the right in the drop down menu
• Click on “Flying” tab. You can either enter the departure and arrival city, or just enter total mileage.
  LA – Boston is 5188 miles per round trip
  Chicago-Boston is 1699 miles per round trip
  Washington, D.C.-Boston is 790 miles per round trip
  New York-Boston is 381 miles per round trip.
• If choosing mileage you can enter into the mileage for all people flying OR
• For frequency, enter the number of people who will be flying, and then click the “yearly” radio button.
• Click on “Add this segment”
• Click on "Offset now”

For Car Travel:

• Click on the “Carbon Calculator” tab at the top of the page
• Click on “Travel Calculator” in the drop down menu
• Click on “Driving” tab.  You can either enter the departure and arrival city, or just enter total mileage of the combined car travel.  (If you enter departure and arrival city, for frequency put number of cars and click the “yearly” radio button)
• Click on “Add this Segment”
• Click on “Offset now”

Atmosfair
Note that payment is in Euros only, and this offset provider cannot be used for car travel.           
For Air Travel:

• Click on “Act Now” tab at the top of the page
• Click on “Contribute Now” in the drop down menu
• Click the “Offset your flight button”
• Enter departure city, arrival city (BOS) and number of people flying
• Click “Calculate emissions” button
• Click “Review/Payment” button
• Check off “100% Emissions Share” and click on “Proceed to Payment"

Sustainable Travel International
For Air Travel:

• Click on “Individuals”
• Click on the “Carbon Calculator” icon in the upper right
• Click on “Flying”
• Enter departure and arrival data and number of passengers, click on “Calculate my emissions”
• For offset amount check the “My Full Impact” radio button
• Click on “Check out”
• Choose “Gold standard project” radio button
• Click on “Submit”

For Car Travel:

• Click on “Individuals” icon in the upper right
• Click on “Carbon Calculator”
• Click on “Driving”
• Enter mileage and fuel economy type and click on “Calculate my emissions”
• Click on “Check out”
• Choose “Gold standard project” radio button
• Click on “Submit”

Firms that already use a different provider and wish to purchase offsets from that provider must submit the name and website of that provider to GreenEIP@law.harvard.edu. Only providers certified through a reputable third-party organization, such as Green-e Climate or Clean Air-Cool Planet, will be accepted.

Information About the Offset Providers

Three providers of high quality offsets are Green EIP approved: Climate Friendly, Native Energy, and Atmosfair (payment in Euros only). These providers were recommended without reservation by the Tufts Climate Initiative in the report entitled Voluntary Offsets for Air-Travel Carbon Emissions: Evaluations and Recommendations of Voluntary Offset Companies(2007).

Because quality of offsets varies by provider, it is insisted that firms use a top-performing provider to ensure real greenhouse gas reductions are realized. Although purchasing offsets is not as desirable as making direct reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, offsets are a useful tool where direct reductions would be impractical.

Offset Projects include:

• Wind Farms in TX, WA, IA
• Biogas in Kenya and India from cow dung
• Efficient fuel wood stoves in Nigeria, Lesotho and Rwanda (added benefit: increase in indoor air quality)
• Geothermal energy in Turkey
• Hydro power in Cambodia

Train, subway, and bus travel also contribute greenhouse gases to the atmosphere; however, the emissions from these modes of transportation are generally lower, especially when highly occupied (see Environmental Life-cycle Assessment of Passenger Transportation (2008)). Therefore, these forms of transportation are exempted from Green EIP to encourage their use.

Pricing of offsets varies significantly from provider to provider. Of the providers discussed here, Native Energy tends to offer the cheapest offsets.

Contact Information

Please direct all inquiries to Molly Cohen, Student Green EIP Coordinator, at GreenEIP@.law.harvard.edu.