Our Commitments to the Environment

Hobbs Peak Properties, the owner of the building at 466 East 500 South, Hobbs & Olson, L.C., and the co-tenants in our building, Hobbs Mediation and the Utah Society for Environmental Education, are all deeply committed to practices that help our local and global environment. We believe that concern about the environmental consequences of our actions cannot be overstated, and we do all that we can to minimize our, and our clients’ impacts on the environment.

Our actions and inactions include:

• Hobbs & Olson is a partner in the ABA-EPA Law Office Climate Challenge
• Hobbs & Olson, L.C. is an E2 business participant in www.slcgreen.com, and employees are encouraged to participate in the program as individuals and families
• Several employees of all of the tenants regularly take mass-transit to and from work
• We encourage bicycle commuting by providing access to bike storage
• We request and maintain information from vendors regarding environmental impact of their business activities. Vendors are informed that sustainability practices are a factor in our selection criteria
• Our printer and copier paper contains at least 30 percent post-consumer recycled content
• We avoid printing whenever possible, and print on both sides of the paper when printing is necessary.
• The building has low-flow bathroom fixtures
• We have a comprehensive recycling program
• Food waste from the kitchen is collected and composted
• Rechargeable batteries are primarily used, and other batteries, electronic equipment, toner and CFL bulbs are appropriately recycled.  (And employees are invited and encouraged to bring these items to the office to have them recycled along with the office recycling.
• Many years ago, we eliminated the use of bottled water at firm functions, offering pitchers of water instead
• All of the fluorescent lighting in the office is low voltage (T8 or T5 efficiency), with most fixtures containing only half of the tubes provided for by the fixtures
• Several years ago, over several consecutive summers, we eliminated all of the lawn (several thousand square feet) and replaced it with xeriscaping, resulting in significant reductions in our water usage.
• In the bathrooms used primarily by employees, we provide color-coded cloth towels, to reduce the consumption of paper and creation of waste associated with the use of paper towels
• All replaced appliances in the building are energy star, with very high efficiency HVAC systems
• Hobbs Peak Properties purchases a minimum of 10% green power
• All possible electronic equipment is turned off nightly
• Computers are all high efficiency, with settings to minimize power consumption
• All heating and cooling in the building is controlled by timed thermostats, to minimize usage during evenings and weekends.

We also encourage lawyers and employees throughout the building to participate in green initiatives—and to propose ideas for reducing our impact on the environment.

In 2008, we published our policy in the Utah Bar Journal in order to challenge and encourage other law firms to adopt similar policies and actions.

We sponsor and contribute to a blog, Utahgreenlaw, a blog commited to providing news, discussion and commentary respecting legal developments in connection with environmental issues in the state of Utah. 

We obtain the majority of our electrical needs via a 30 panel solar array, installed on the building we share with Hobbs Mediation. Here's a link to the panels, showing what they've produced and (during sunny days) what they're producing: