The Legal Sustainability Alliance of English law firms has released its Annual Report for 2018, showing that all 59 reporting firms reduced their total carbon footprint by 11% from last 2017.

The Alliance was formed in 2007 as a free to join, inclusive network open to law firms, solicitor practices, in house counsel and related organisations. It has nearly 300 members, each of whom agree to work collaboratively in sharing experiences and best practice to embed sustainability into their operations.

The record 59 firms which reported their carbon footprint included 9 who reported for the first time.

"We are delighted that 28 law firms have now consistently reported for 8 years or more and those LSA members have shown an impressive 56% reduction in their combined carbon footprint and a 39% reduction in the average per capita emissions," the report says.

"This highlights the benefit of consistently measuring and reporting your firm's carbon footprint and working alongside colleagues and other to reduce this."

The report says that over the past three years, paper use by reporting firms has reduced by 9% from a total of 4676 tonnes in 2016 to 4249 tonnes in 2017.

The Australian Legal Sector Alliance appears to be the closest similar operation to New Zealand. This has 40 members (membership is restricted to Australian firms) and the Australian organisation released its last report in November 2017.