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ESG – Environmental: What are the environmental impacts of your business and what are your opportunities for improvement?

Climate change has dominated headlines for the past decade and all organisations are under a collective pressure to help slow the rate of change. The acceleration has been driven by heightened social, governmental, and consumer attention on the broader impact of organisations.

Developing environmentally sustainable policies, workplaces, projects and ways of working both within an organisation and its supply chain have become increasingly important for businesses.

Managing the expectations of your people, consumers and stakeholders combined with the setting of environmental standards and regulation can be a tricky path to navigate – staying ahead of the legislation and with bad practices having a severely negative impact on an organisation’s brand.

Our team can advise and support you on issues such as:

  • Environmental claims in advertising, marketing and other communications
  • Implementation of whistleblowing policies and advising on employee claims relating to the company's environmental practices
  • Environmental Impact Assessments for individual projects and Sustainability Appraisals and Strategic Environmental Assessment for Local Plans
  • Training on compliance with obligations under the new Competition & Market Authority’s Green Claims Code covering environmental claims on packaging and other communications
  • Green lease and sustainability provisions on behalf of tenants to help ensure they are occupying greener space and on behalf of landlords covering requirements to impose upon their occupiers
  • Advice in relation to employee activism and time off for protests
  • Bringing or defending breach of contract or misrepresentation claims where parties have not adhered to environmental standards in contractual arrangements
  • Reputation management and media issues arising from environmental claims
  • Extreme weather disruption to supply chains causing contractual performance issues Implementation of whistleblowing policies and advising on employee claims relating to the companies’ environmental practices
  • Contractual sustainability provisions and the legal requirements around sustainability in construction
  • Environmentally sustainable travel, expenses and remuneration policies including cycle to work and e-vehicle schemes
  • S106 agreement obligations to control environmental impact of new developments
  • Site remediations, meeting Carbon Net Zero targets, waste management and environmental legislation

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