Environmental Sustainability

The Environment and Climate Change practice is recognised as being a thought leader in the field. Our lawyers advise clients on a range of critical issues which affect their business, including clean technology, low carbon energy, climate finance and markets, environmental regulation, sustainable finance and sustainable real estate.

For more information on the breadth of the Linklaters Environment and Climate Change practice, see the microsite.

In celebration of the UNEP World Environment Day, in 2017 Linklaters became a carbon neutral business and in 2018 a new three year partnership was announced with ClimateCare to offset unavoidable emissions through the Gola Rainforest Project.

Achieving carbon neutrality followed a 10 year programme of reducing operational greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, business travel, waste and water. Emissions are offset from all scope 1 (e.g. gas use, refrigerant losses), scope 2 (i.e. purchased electricity which is not 100% renewable sourced) and scope 3 (e.g. business travel, electricity transmission and distribution, waste, waste and couriers). New environmental objectives which will ensure emissions continue to reduce are set annually.

> Carbon neutrality infographic (opens pdf)

Since 2007 the firm has marked UNEP’s World Environment Day as the primary vehicle in raising awareness across the firm as a call to action for some of the world’s most challenging environmental issues. Themes have covered climate change and carbon emissions, energy efficiency, wildlife conservation, plastic pollution, sustainable and local food sourcing, resource conversation, re-use and upcycling and environmental law.

For almost as long as this, the firm has marked Earth Hour. Depending on the issues which are most important to our environment teams across the world, Earth Day, World Water Day and other days of significance are celebrated.

We are both founding and executive members of the Legal Sustainability Alliance (LSA), an inclusive network of law firms and related organisations committed to working collaboratively to improve the environmental sustainability of their operations and activities. Linklaters is represented on the Leaders Group, the Taskforce, and the Reporting Working Group. Linklaters subscribes to the LSA Principles.

Other partnerships include the City of London Corporation’s Air Quality Champions Awards and Clean City Awards Scheme, Business in the Community, and with EWS-WWF in the UAE.

Consideration is given to environmental certifications and/or ratings of new and existing buildings. For example, Linklaters are occupants in:

• an A-label building in Amsterdam, a LEED platinum and DGNB gold pre-certification building in Frankfurt, 
• a ‘Class A’ building in Milan, 
• a BCA Green Mark Scheme building in Singapore, 
• a LEED Silver accredited building in Stockholm, and 
• a BREEAM rated Excellent building in Warsaw. 

Environmental, health and wellbeing aspects are also included in the design process for fitting out new office space or when office space is refurbished. This has included using materials made from recycled components, re-using existing materials, and minimising waste. 

A positive dialogue with building management is key to the ongoing environmental performance of office space, and, in many locations for managing environmental data. In Hong Kong, for example, the building manager hosts tenant sustainability meetings.

In 2017 the firmwide base year was re-stated to 2010 (previously 2007), achievements include greenhouse gas emissions:

• across scope 1, 2 and 3 reduced by 26%
• resulting from electricity reduced by 42%

In 2018, 73% of electricity was sourced from a 100% renewable supply.

Linklaters Greenhouse Gas Emissions Statement

¹2010 data limited assurance to the principles of AA1000 (2008): inclusivity, materiality and responsiveness.
² 2016 data limited assurance in accordance with (ISAE) 3000.
³2017 data limited verification in accordance with the requirements of ISO 14064 – part 3 standard.
⁴2018 data limited verification in accordance with the requirements of ISO 14064 – part 3 standard.
⁵to ensure consistency across greenhouse gas emissions factors for electricity and due to DEFRA ending the production of electricity factors for overseas locations in 2016,electricity emissions factors were instead sourced from the IEA and rebaselined for all years. Therefore, years 2010 and 2016 above have been updated since the previous assurance years.

The 2018 Greenhouse Gas Assurance Statement is here.

Environmental Performance

¹Base year was restated to 2010 (from 2007) in 2017.
²Includes gas, district heating and cooling, fuel and gas oil.
³This includes over 10 different types of waste streams, based on a combination of weighed and estimated waste data.
⁴Recycling rate in 2018 in the UK was 88%, based on weighed data.