Our approach

Linklaters understands the importance of the changing climate and strong environmental management. Across our business, we have reduced many of our negative impacts and associated greenhouse gas emissions since 2007. We look for opportunities to reduce our impacts and associated emissions further, including through energy and resource efficiency, waste prevention, sustainable travel and supply chain engagement.

Already leaders in our sector – both in operations and client advice – we know there is more to do and we are fully committed to playing our part.

Leadership and commitment

In June 2021 we adopted firmwide carbon reduction targets to April 2030 – approved by the Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi) – from a FY19 (2018/19) market based baseline, which are to:

  1. Reduce scope 1 & 2 emissions by 70% and
  2. Reduce scope 3 emissions by 50%

Our verified progress against these targets to April 2023 can be seen below. Please note:

  • Following a rebaselining exercise of our FY19 carbon footprint in 2024, our FY19 carbon footprint decreased from 89,650 tCO2e to 81,299 tCO2e.
  • Following our FY19 rebaselining exercise, in FY23 we were ahead of our scope 1 & 2 target (between FY19 and FY23 we achieved a 40.3% reduction) and slightly behind our scope 3 target (between FY19 and FY23 we achieved a 12.9% reduction).
  • Emissions per person (market based) reduced from 12.3 tCO2e to 9.8 tCO2e between FY19 and FY23. 
  • Our focus continues to be on ‘building back better’ post-Covid and transitioning to a lower carbon way of working and doing business:

Carbon reduction target progress

Our leadership is longstanding. In addition to being one of only two global law firms to hold firmwide environmental management system (EMS) certification to ISO 14001:2015, we remain the only global law firm to have reported GHG emissions through the CDP Climate Change questionnaire since 2012, scoring a B in 2023. 

Governance for the programme is provided by the Corporate Responsibility Committee which has delegated authority from the Partnership Board to endorse the firmwide environment programme, including the Environmental Policy.

Externally, we are active members of the Legal Sustainability Alliance, a network of law firms in which members share best practice and work together to ensure law firms play a full part in tackling the climate crisis.

Tangible Results

Science-Based Target progress: Between FY2019 and FY2023, we reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) equivalent, reported in tCO2e, as follows:

  • Scope 1 & 2 by 40.3%, and
  • Scope 3 by 12.9%.

These reductions were driven by many changes and reductions, including between FY2019 and FY2023:

  • energy consumption 11.6% reduction,
  • natural gas emissions 9% reduction and refrigerant gas emissions 65% reduction,
  • increase in renewable electricity supplied from 73% to 86%,
  • business travel distance reduction of 26% and a 100% growth in distance travelled by rail,
  • decarbonisation of our supply chain, including through targeted engagement with key supply partners, resulting in a 9.7% decrease in purchased goods and services emissions.

Long-term progress: Between 2009/10 and 2019/20, we reduced greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) equivalent by 46% across scopes 1, 2 and relevant scope 3 sub-categories.

This includes reductions arising from electricity (39%), water use (27%), business travel (23%), paper use (48.5%) and waste generation (36%).

More specific environment performance and GHG data is available below.

Carbon offsetting

Between 2018 and April 2023 Linklaters offset GHGs associated with our traditional business activities including travel and premises1 through the Gola Rainforest Conservation Project in Sierra Leone.

The Gola Project protects over 140,000 hectares of rare rainforest with numerous endangered wildlife species, by creating a National Park to protect the habitat for 327 bird species, 650 endemic plant species, and 49 species of larger mammals. This, in turn, supports local communities through education and sustainable agriculture within a buffer zone surrounding the Park.

Gola Project 

1 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 the following scope 3 emission sources: water, waste, paper, hotel stays and business travel including plane, train and taxi journeys.  

Sustainable by design

Our office fitout and move designs are informed by environment, health and wellbeing certifications and our own guidance and generic specifications which are built into our Global Design Guide and supported by Sustainable Design Checklists. 

We have leading environmental certifications across our offices and are working to enhance the health and wellbeing credentials of our sites through office moves and refurbishments. Examples include:

  • a LEED platinum (and DGNB gold) in Frankfurt, Dubai and Jakarta; LEED silver in New York and Stockholm
  • a ‘Class A’ building in Milan, an A-label building in Amsterdam and a BCA Green Mark Scheme building in Singapore
  • From 2026 our new headquarters will be at 20 Ropemaker, London, which is designed to BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ and WELL ‘Platinum’. Our fit-out is designed to achieve the same BREEAM and WELL ratings and is now under construction with the move scheduled for late 2025/early 2026.

Advising clients

Our Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Practice has a robust understanding of the regulatory and policy drivers of the market and experience across a wide range of sectors and contexts. We take a holistic approach, covering a wide range of areas - from climate change and resource efficiency, human rights and community engagement, antibribery and corruption, transparency and disclosure, product governance, and risk management more generally.

Linklaters Greenhouse Gas Emissions Statement and Performance Data

The following firmwide GHG emissions, performance data and verification statement are true to the end of FY23 (April 2023).

From our FY19 market-based baseline, calculated in line with the SBTi methodology, our carbon emission performance over the past four years is as follows. The scope 3 emission categories relevant to Linklaters are shown.

 Linklaters Greenhouse Gas Emissions Statement

Firmwide Carbon Emissions Units FY20191 FY20222 FY20233
  Company Vehicles tCO2e 65 165 72
  Fugitive Emissions tCO2e 170 130 59
  On-Site Combustion tCO2e 1,477 1,616 1,167
Scope 1 sub-total Scope 1 subtotal tCO2e 1,712 1,910 1,299
  Electricity
(market-based)		 tCO2e 3,411 1,444 1,507
  Electricity 
(location-based)		 tCO2e 8,038 5,607 4,569
District Heating & Cooling tCO2e 704 725 674
Scope 2 sub-total

Scope 2

(market-based) subtotal

 tCO2e 4,115 2,169 2,181
 

Scope 2

(location-based) subtotal

 tCO2e 8,742 6,332 5,243
  Purchased Goods & Services tCO2e 41,514  37,457 37,474
  Capital Goods tCO2e 6,315  9,804 6,605
  Fuel and energy related activities tCO2e 320  2,115 398
  Upstream transportation and distribution tCO2e 712  159 192
Waste generated in operations tCO2e 312  39 156
  Business Travel  tCO2e 24,141 2,389 15,889
  Employee commuting & working from home tCO2e 2,118 4,944 5,006
  Downstream leased assets tCO2e 15 8 7
  Investments tCO2e 1  0.1 8
Scope 3 sub-total Scope 3 subtotal tCO2e 75,472 56,913 65,737
Total emissions (market based) Scope 1, 2 and 3 Total emissions (market based) Scope 1,2, and 3 tCO2e 81,299 60,992 69,217

Total emissions (location based) Scope 1, 2 and 3

 Total emissions (location based) Scope 1, 2 and 3 tCO2e 85,926 65,155 72,893
Total emissions intensity (FTE headcount market based) Total emissions intensity (FTE headcount market based) tCO2e 12.3  9.2  9.8
Total emissions intensity (FTE headcount location based) Total emissions intensity (FTE headcount location based) tCO2e 13.0 9.8 10.2
1-3 FY2019-23 scope 1, 2 & 3 data limited verification in accordance with the requirements of ISO 14064 – part 3 standard.

In addition, all scope 1 & 2 UK data has been verified to reasonable assurance in accordance with the requirements of ISO 14064 - part 3 standard for SECR requirements purposes.

The 2023 Greenhouse Gas Assurance Statement is here.

Environmental Performance

Firmwide Units FY2019  FY2022   FY2023
Energy Electricity Million kWh 23.4  19.9  19.9  
  Renewable Tariff Percentage 73  82  86  
  Other1 Million kWh 9.3  12.9  10.1  
 Procurement Purchased Goods & Services £ spent (millions) 169.1  122.6  205.9  
  Capital Goods £ spent (millions) 22.6  22.4  19.3  
 Waste Disposal All waste2 Tonnes 1,633  740  667  
  Recycling  Percentage 75  71  54  
 Business Travel Air Million Km 71.5  8.4  50.0  
  Road Million Km 1.1  0.9  0.6  
  Rail Million Km 2.8  1.7  5.6  
Employee Commuting & Working from Home Employee Commuting Million Km 6.9  3.1  0.3  
  Working from Home Million kWh -  8.5  12.5  
Upstream Leased Assets Electricity Million kWh 0.01  0.01  0.01  
Downstream Leased Assets Electricity Million kWh 0.04  0.04  0.04  
 Investments Investments £ invested (millions) 0.7  0.3  0.3  
Resource Use    Units FY2019  FY2022  FY2023
   Paper  A4 Reams  153,895  38,900  39,588
   Water  m3  73,686  33,379  46,372

1 Includes gas, district heating and cooling.
2 This includes over 10 different types of waste streams, based on a combination of weighed and estimated waste data.