Shining a light on sustainability

Members of the in-house community have come together to create a free toolkit to help you navigate sustainability principles.

A Sustainability Toolkit for in-house lawyers has been launched to help navigate environmental, social and governance (ESG) terminology and to promote understanding of topics.

The toolkit came about as part of a collaborative project between a group of in-house lawyers from different sectors and organisations who were keen to learn more about sustainability, to help their respective businesses tackle climate change. 

Mark Cruickshank, Managing Legal Counsel at The Royal Bank of Scotland (Natwest Group) and a member of the group, explains: “We identified a gap for a focused and practical legal guide on sustainability issues which affect all business areas and we set about creating the toolkit to address those needs. John Kerry’s claim that lawyers ‘are all climate lawyers now’ is certainly true. We wanted to create something that was easy to digest and provides practical guidance.”

Understanding ESG terminology and issues is important regardless of whether you work in-house or in private practice or academia. 

The group identified three topics that could have most impact: greenwashing, supply chain management and carbon offsetting. From there, the toolkit creation began. 

A practical guide to sustainability for in-house lawyers, the toolkit provides a deeper understanding of each topic and outlines steps that lawyers can take to help their businesses in these fields. Free to use, it is readily available for anyone to download and contains:

• Basic information on the fundamentals of sustainability.
• Horizon scanning on future sustainability legislation and cases.
• A series of ‘How to…’ guides for common scenarios and opportunities to use climate-aligned approaches in your work.

Encouraging discussion

At the launch event in May, Wendy McCallum – a lecturer in climate and sustainability at the University of Edinburgh Business School’s Centre for Business, Climate Changes and Sustainability – lead a discussion on balancing the risks of greenwashing and greenwashing trends. She also lead a broader discussion, where participants could share ideas and challenges, and learn not only from experts but from one another.

From a legal perspective, Wendy’s presentation was incredible to watch and explore. Wendy highlighted how challenging these topics can be, and how often we use words freely without truly understanding the meaning. In doing so, what impact does that have on reporting commitments?

Wendy went on to highlight terminology, examples of greenwashing and the trends we are seeing and just how important it is to gain a deeper knowledge of this. With various companies, sectors and industries facing contradictory pressure when it comes to how – and how extensively – they communicate their ESG commitments internally and externally, clarity is needed in order to demonstrate these commitments accurately. Some industries are facing a growing number of challenges to the validity of their ESG commitments, while others are starting to show a decline. Which industries are affected and what is driving these trends? Paradoxically, the anti-ESG movement is growing and contesting the importance of ESG considerations. What will this mean for companies going forward and what other developments are on the horizon?

Mark adds: “Wendy highlighted a number of key challenges that all businesses will have to face, which is to make claims in a way that is fair, clear and not misleading. Being able to talk positively about the work that businesses do is important but that needs to be balanced with the legislative requirements not to mislead consumers. As in-house lawyers, it was fascinating to hear Wendy’s perspective on greenwashing and the trends that have emerged over the last few years.”  

Commenting on what lies ahead for the group and the toolkit, Mark says: “The launch event was a great start to bring the toolkit to life and to explore greenwashing as one of the main challenges we all face. However, there is lots still to do. We are keen to use it as a platform to drive positive change in the role that in-house lawyers play as business advisors. We will be organising more events to bring the in-house community together, share best practice and discuss the challenges we all face. (Watch this space for our second event later this year!) The toolkit will also continue to evolve as a free resource so that it remains relevant and valuable for the in-house legal community.” 

The toolkit has been designed and created by Mark Cruickshank and Hannah Gardner (NatWest Group), Kat Durie (Baxters), Clarissa Lambourne (The Chancery Lane Project), Tom Brennan (Environmental Law Foundation), Caroline Bone (William Grant) and Natasza Shilling (Vodafone).

You can access to the toolkit here, and if you have ideas to share or would like to join the group, please email Mark.