60 seconds with… a Sustainability Committee member

Sophie McIvor sat down with Kirsty MacArthur to discuss how she started her own environmental consultancy with her husband, her love of Scotland and what she hopes solicitors will learn from climate change being put back on a global stage.

Kirsty, could you start by telling us a bit about your career so far?

I had to smile when I started to answer this question, as it got me thinking back to me, aged 17, and all that angst about making life choices when you know so little of life!

In lots of ways I suspect I’m doing exactly what I should have always chosen to do; I have always loved reading and helping people, but my original career choices didn’t point to law.

I studied all the sciences at school and was planning on studying medicine. Then one day I bumped into an inspiring sixth former who mentioned she was doing law. Being a bookish teenager (and fairly rudderless, apparently!) I thought, ‘That sounds interesting!’, and promptly went off to the careers’ adviser.

Now, whilst I absolutely maintain that we are encouraged to make our career choices much too young, I do feel very lucky to have had the career I have.

I began working in law in various small and medium Scottish firms before eventually moving to work for Pinsent Masons, where I worked on property and environmental projects. During the 6 years I was there, I was offered a one year secondment into the ScottishPower Renewables legal team. This was a fast paced and demanding role, and I learned a lot about the commercial needs of large utility companies and renewable developers.

From Pinsent Masons I made the leap to work with my husband and run our own environmental consultancy, MacArthur Green. Our talented team provide ecology and ornithology advice, principally for renewables energy clients in Scotland, and it’s been a very busy 15 years indeed!

In 2019 we made the decision to move to a biodiversity positive, carbon conscious business model and haven’t looked back. Clients value our award winning approach, and we feel we have proven the business case for keeping carbon management front and centre in all business decisions.

We recently made the decision to sell our business to the global consultancy, SLR Consulting, where I now continue in my role as Director.

What influenced you to take an interest in environmental law?

Living in Scotland it’s hard not to love the outdoors. I vividly remember woodland walks with my dad as a kid, and the magic of nature all around you. This is where my interest in the environment originated.

We are truly blessed with our countryside. Some of the areas I love include Argyll with its rugged and formidable coastline, then there’s the contrast of the smooth hills and rivers of Perthshire (what a feast for the eyes in in October with the leaves changing!), and then you have the wild places like Torridon with its remote and stunning hills (beautiful, and brutal to climb!). I could go on…

I am fiercely proud of what we have. I am also conscious of how much better it could be with measures like biodiversity enhancement of peatlands, rewilding and planting native woodland. Scotland is perfectly placed to be a key player in the natural capital market, and I’m excited to see what happens next in this space.

For now, we need to be more ambitious and not just focus on basic environmental protection. Our environment is a gift, and I am very mindful of the role we have to play as custodians; we need to act now to protect it for the future.

The Sustainability Committee recently came together to discuss the past year and look to the future, could you share some highlights from that meeting?

Setting up the Sustainability Committee was a powerful demonstration of the Law Society of Scotland’s commitment to the environment. The work they are doing to understand and manage their carbon footprint is great to see.  

It is extremely encouraging to be part of this talented and committed group of lawyers working together over the past year to bring about positive change in the legal sector.

It needs to be easy to make climate positive changes and the Sustainability Committee has continued to help the legal community by searching for ways to make this happen. The sustainability hub continues to offer great tips and ideas for adopting a climate conscious approach to legal practice.

The fantastic cross section of the committee (private practice, in-house, small and larger firms) has ensured we do not lose sight of the challenges faces across the legal sector. Our meetings continue to make me proud to be part of the committee who are all continuing to work hard to make it easy for lawyers to make a difference in their practice, in their firms or in their personal lives.

When it comes to the committee’s work and sustainability further afield, why do you think the legal profession should be taking an active role in addressing climate change?

The relevance of climate change can be lost in the typical siloed thinking of legal practice; the focus on expertise is funnelled into disciplines such as criminal, corporate or property, with no obvious call to think about the environment.   

We read the headlines and can be duped into thinking this is not relevant for us. And yet climate change is relevant to everyone as it is a global threat. It’s time for us to reframe our thinking.

All lawyers, whether in their capacity as trusted advisors, business owners, or individuals, have an opportunity to make a difference. We need to keep putting the environment on the agenda, and I truly believe the positive changes will come.

I readily acknowledge that it is harder for smaller firms or sole practitioners to find the time to consider the planet whilst they are being continually challenged by the pressing demands involved in running a business. This is why we need to make it easy to play a role, however small, in addressing climate change, and maybe reduce overhead costs too. The law Society of Scotland’s Sustainability Hub has some quick tips to get everyone started.

Only in November did COP29 take place in Azerbaijan, so as sustainability and climate change returns to a global stage, what do you hope people will have learned this time around?

I’m not sure that COP29 is the place where people will learn, as such; these conferences are, necessarily, a broad church, and progress can be slow.

I was interested to read about the considerable numbers of fossil fuel lobbyists who will be in attendance in Baku, and I am keen to learn about their plans to help mitigate climate change; we all have a role to play in reducing the impact of climate change in the future. My own view is that we cannot wait for COP events to teach us what to do here. Yes, we need to keep the drumbeat of COP events running, and we also need to see more frequent meetings of the countries with the passion to drive the positive changes we need forward in between the COP meetings. A year is a long time in a race to reduce the impacts of global heating. 

COP29 will, however, serve to keep sustainability and climate change a global topic for the less engaged and uninformed public, countries and businesses, which is important. The sad reality is that for so many global citizens climate change is a daily life and death concern. The severe droughts, floods and storms we are seeing globally mean that we should see a community of leaders coming together for COP29, unified in a relentless, determined focus to mitigate the damage we are causing to our planet. 

I hope COP29 will show people that the dangers of climate change are not somebody else’s problem. We need to see COP29 move from the more discursive COPs of the past to concrete plans of action.

I feel the focus on learning needs to shift towards how we plan to adapt to the realistic levels of global warming that we are likely to see now. Prevention cannot be the focus alone. With that in mind, I hope people will see world leaders agreeing a significant and meaningful funding package for developing countries to support their adaptation to global warming.

Finally, what keeps you busy outside of work?

I sit on the Board of the young people’s charity, Includem, a team that works hard to transform the lives of young people in Scotland. Other than that, I have a fiction and a non-fiction book club, love cycling and am also part of a new theatre company at Glasgow’s RCS.