Green Initiative

Our Green Initiatives: Positively Impacting Our Community and Others Around the World

Offsetting Our Carbon Usage

At Althaus Law, we believe in taking responsibility for our environmental impact. In the past year, our firm generated approximately 54 metric tons of CO2. To help offset this, we’ve purchased carbon offset credits, aiming to balance out our emissions and do our part for the planet. We will be consistently monitoring our carbon footprint to continue offsetting equal or greater amounts of carbon that we are producing. 

We’ve partnered with two organizations: TerraPass and The Gold Standard Marketplace.

TerraPass was founded in 2004 by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and his students. They fund projects worldwide, with a focus on the United States. Their initiatives include renewable energy projects like wind farms, forest protection, methane capture, and landfill gas capture. All of these projects are verified by third parties to ensure their effectiveness.

The Gold Standard Marketplace supports climate protection projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also creating sustainable development benefits for communities in need. We’ve chosen to support two impactful projects:

• Emissions Reductions from PET Recycling, Romania – This project reduces greenhouse gas emissions by recycling PET waste into new products, avoiding the need for virgin plastic production and preventing waste from being sent to landfills. Over the past decade, the project reduced approximately 453,800 metric tons of CO2 while supporting local employment, technological development, and broader environmental and community sustainability goals.
• Safe Water Systems for Rural Uganda – This project funded the distribution of 30,000 Purifaaya ceramic water filters to households in Uganda, providing up to 5 years of safe drinking water while reducing the need to boil water with wood or charcoal. The program improved health outcomes, saved households time, supported employment, and expanded access to clean water for more than 30,000 families.

At Althaus Law, we’re committed to reducing our environmental impact and contributing to a more sustainable future. By supporting these projects, we’re not only offsetting our carbon footprint but also helping communities around the world. We invite you to learn more about these initiatives and consider joining us in making a difference. 

Redirecting Waste from Landfills

In addition to our efforts to neutralize the carbon output we cannot reduce, Althaus Law is also aiming to source our consumables through post-consumer materials and redirect the waste they may produce away from landfills. Our aim is to divert all of our waste from landfills, but cannot In order to get as close as possible to that goal, we take the following measures to redirect our waste:

1. We have a compost collection bin that one of our Attorneys then uses to keep his garden healthy;
2. We use a local organization to collect our traditionally recyclable materials;
   1. In our Northglenn office, we are able to divert 48% of our waste from landfills through this stream of recycling with the City of Northglenn.
   2. In our Longmont office, we are able to divert 38% o our waste from landfills through this stream of recycling with the City of Longmont.
3. We shred and recycle sensitive documents; and 
4. We use TerraCycle to cover the rest! 
   1. On top of the average recycling percentage of 43% between both offices diverted from landfills through city recycling, both of our locations have TerraCycle All-in-One Boxes that we use to divert as much of our office waste as we can.