Our approach
Environmental sustainability and our focus on climate action are key elements of our aspiration to being a leading responsible business and align with the commitments we have made as a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact.
Our approach centres on four objectives:
- Energy and fuel: Moving to renewables and reducing overall demand, including decarbonising our fleet through a transition to zero-emission vehicles
- Supply chain: Engaging our suppliers to collaborate on reaching net-zero by 2040
- Business Travel: Managing travel emissions whilst continuing to meet the needs of our clients and wellbeing of our colleagues
- Stakeholder engagement: Engaging our colleagues, clients and wider communities to achieve our sustainability goals.
We are committed to transparency and hold ourselves accountable by measuring our impact and reporting annually on the progress we are making. We work with a number of third parties and use a range of external benchmarks and certifications to support our continuous improvement.
Highlights
- Founding members of the Legal Sustainability Alliance (LSA) since 2008
- Signatories to the LSA Legal Renewables Initiative
- Certified annually to ISO systems: ISO 14001 – Environmental Management and ISO 50001 – Energy Management
- Gold EcoVadis score – Top 5% (95+ percentile)
- Approved near- and long-term science-based emissions reductions targets with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)
- 98% of total electricity consumption renewable.
Roadmap to Net-Zero
Following the successful verification of our near and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets with the SBTi, we are making positive strides towards our goal of achieving net-zero by 2040.
In FY24, our Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions reduced by 76% (compared with our baseline year FY20), surpassing our FY27 target three years early and demonstrating our ability to minimise our environmental impacts whilst growing our business.
To continue our progress, we plan to implement further measures across our Scope 3 impact areas; particularly relating to supply chain, business travel and stakeholder awareness.
As well as supporting our clients with their own net-zero journeys through our ESG advisory services, we continue to upskill our colleagues via training provided by The Carbon Literacy Project, expertise delivered by the Cranfield University Team and in-house masterclasses led by our colleagues with expertise across sustainability topics.
Helping our clients be more sustainable
In 2023 we launched our ESG advisory services designed to help our clients find out how they can protect people, the planet and our communities, while still running a successful business.
As well as our Net-Zero Readiness Assessment, we offer a wide range of services to help clients comply with the latest planning and regulatory laws around the environment, including:
- Legal support for compliance with environmental obligations
- Environmental impact assessments
- Renewable energy planning issues.
