Environment and sustainability

Environmental performance is critical to the successful operation of our firm and so we continue to take important steps to try to reduce our environmental impact as well as engaging with our clients and our people on the subject.

As a major UK law firm with international offices, we recognise the importance of leading the way in adopting best environmental practice, taking responsibility for our actions and striving to achieve challenging reductions in emissions and waste. In the process we wish to inform and be informed by our clients and exceed their expectations.

Our commitment to environmental protection

The climate crisis has laid bare the urgency to become an environmentally sustainable business. To that end, in our 2021 strategic review, we made a commitment to demanding targets aligned with a net zero trajectory, to reduce our absolute combined Scope 1, 2 and 3 UK carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 from our 2019 /20 baseline year. We measure and assess our carbon footprint annually and report on our progress. In 2019, our UK carbon emissions totalled 3477 tCO2e. In 2023 we had reduced these emissions by 11.9% to 3063 tCO2e or 3.26 tCO2e per employee. Our full Carbon emission inventory for our most recent 2023/24 reporting year can be found in our Annual Review.

We hold ISO 14001:2015 certification for our UK offices, underpinned by our Environment Policy, committing us to continual improvement in our environmental performance.  Our Responsible Business Steering Committee drive our environment strategy at the top level, supported by our implementation working group. Our internal employee environmental network, eForce, supports us to raise awareness of environmental issues among colleagues and drive action internally across our key initiatives.

We are members of the Legal Sustainability Alliance, an inclusive movement of law firms and related organisations committed to take action to improve the environmental sustainability of our operations and a Dialogue Partner of Legal Charter 1.5.

Our next steps are to:

• Review our near and long-term carbon reduction targets in line with best practice methodology from organisations such as the Science Based Targets initiative.
• Undertake climate risk / opportunity scenario planning and progress and refine our net zero transition plan.
• Continue our programme of internal communications and staff engagement to raise awareness, generate buy-in and seek ideas and feedback.
• Build on our Supplier Code of Conduct by implementing minimum environmental standards through a targeted supplier engagement programme.
• Continue to make incremental reductions to our impact in areas such as business travel, energy and waste.
• Deliver an internal Carbon Literacy training programme.

Progress to date

Some of the initiatives to demonstrate our progress to date are set out below.

Energy

• Our UK offices use electricity supplied from renewable sources
• The majority of our UK office space is fitted with motion sensor lighting
• As part of our recent office fitouts, we have ensured that we have installed LED lighting and we are implementing a programme of installing LED where practically possible in all our UK offices
• Floor temperature settings are reset on a weekly basis to maximise energy efficiency

Waste Reduction

• Supplied all employees with individual reusable water bottles
• Removed most single-use consumables from all tea points (plastic/paper cups/stirrers) and cups and cutlery
• As part of a "War on Waste" campaign, removed all desk bins from our UK offices and require all recyclable waste to be disposed of in recycling bins
• Minimised our reliance on chemicals by primarily using electrically altered water for cleaning
• Introduced a routine of refilling and reusing soap containers and sponges. These products have significant environmental and/or ethical benefits.
• Changed our paper to a lower GSM weight to reduce consumption
• We recycle all our client area coffee grounds into advanced biofuels