Introduction
Being a sustainable and responsible business is aligned with our firm's strategic plan and our core values as a firm. We have a long history of contributing to our wider community which originated with our founder, and we strive to build on this foundation year on year.
We first began to report voluntarily on our sustainable business activities in 2021 and this is our fourth year of publishing our impact across the four internationally recognised core dimensions of a sustainable business programme: Community, Workplace, Marketplace and the Environment. This report demonstrates our activities for our financial year 2023/24.
As in previous reports we have aligned our activities with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The 2023 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all member states of the United Nations in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and in the future. We are committed to being part of this development by ensuring that we manage our potential impacts, while also maximising our opportunities to improve society for the future.
We continue to be committed to giving back to our community and are pleased to engage with a number of wonderful partners on a long-term basis, resulting in more impactful relationships. As a leading Irish law firm, we also recognise our duty to encourage and promote a culture of pro bono work, not only within our own firm, but also amongst our peers, so that collectively we can improve access to legal advice and education for people in need. Education plays a key role in empowering communities and individuals with access to law and representation and in understanding and availing of their rights and so remains a core theme of our interactions with the not-for-profit sector beyond our pro-bono activities and the charity partners selected by our staff.
We understand that achieving long-term sustainability in business generally and in the provision of legal services is a complex and lengthy process but one which requires determined, urgent action in light of the continuing environmental data including the trend of repeated record global temperatures. Over the coming financial year, we will update our emissions targets and actions in preparing our emissions statement from 2025 to 2030, renewing our commitment to the <1.5OC Paris climate aim.
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is now part of Irish law, and we recognise the additional rigour this will bring to reporting on the sustainability related aspects of social, environmental and governance matters. We are working to align our future reporting with the requirements of the CSRD, not least to assist our clients to whom the Directive applies with their 'upstream' reporting. Accordingly you will see that the sections of this report have been reordered to align with CSRD requirements. We have also included the relevant Sustainable Development Goals at the top of each section of the report, as in previous years.
We also recognise that maximising sustainability in business requires effort. It would not be possible without the commitment of all our people and the many organisations that we work with. As a firm we are committed to playing our part in building a more sustainable business environment for our employees, our clients and the communities in which we operate. Together we can achieve a more sustainable future for everyone.
At a Glance
Environment
We continue our commitment to the principles of the circular, net-zero economy with our programme of year-on-year monitoring and continuous improvement and we work hard to ensure that these principles are embedded in every aspect of our business. Our focus remains on increasing our resource efficiency and on minimising our negative impact on the environment.
Our Journey to date
While our carbon emissions have reduced by 21% when compared to our 2018 calendar year baseline, over the 12 months to the end of 2023, we have seen an increase of approximately 5% on the previous calendar year. We have worked with external consultancy, Sustineo, to conduct an annual independent audit of our direct and indirect carbon emissions. While we have publicly committed to reducing our Scope 1,2 and 3 emissions by 50% of our 2018 levels by 2025/26, we acknowledge that there is still much more to be done, primarily regarding Scope 3 emissions, to achieve this target. Next year we will be switching to FY reporting against an FY19 base of 2681 tonnes of CO2 e emmisions.
The three main elements to our current carbon footprint:
- Business travel
- Energy (building)
- Other (paper/waste/water etc.)
Significant work is ongoing this year to further review our firm's current business travel policy and guidelines. Despite our targets and intentions our Scope 3 flight emissions for calendar year 2023 exceeded the corresponding calendar year 2018 baseline figure.
To address this, recommendations are being developed by the Sustainable Business Committee to the firm's Management Committee in relation to the management of flight related GHG emissions.
As a firm we want to conserve natural resources and reduce carbon emissions, thereby playing our part in climate change mitigation. When compared to our 2018 baseline, we continue to reduce both our Scope 1 direct emissions from purchased gas and fuels and our Scope 2 indirect emissions from purchased energy (electricity). As we look back at our activities over the past year, we see that our purchased gas and fuels direct GHG emissions continue to fall in line with targeted reductions but further reductions are needed to meet our original near term target in 2026. To address this, we have developed an Energy Savings Action Plan which is expected to achieve the intended Scope 1 and 2 GHG target reductions notwithstanding the growth of the firm in the interim. We are pleased to maintain our ISO50001:2018 Energy Management accreditation from Certification Europe following a surveillance audit in November 2023.
Click to view the Sustainable Business Impact Report 2024 in full
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