Integrating carbon reduction and stakeholder engagement

Expert comment by Shelley Bartlett and Jonathan Ekin, C-Change

It is impossible to talk about the issues of sustainability and climate change in a business context without referring one to the other. It is evident that they both represent real business opportunities, but also risks. Capitalising on the opportunities and minimising the risks is achieved by making the connections between these issues.

The key to actually making these connections within your business lies in truly understanding and addressing sustainability itself. Sustainability is made up of three strands - the environmental, social and economic. It is akin to a three-legged milking stool - without one of the legs it just does not stand up. These strands need to be understood and managed in terms of impact and addressed in an integrated and balanced way.

Integrating environmental and social strategy

LSA members are aware of the environmental strand and their own impact on the environment. Tackling climate change through a focus on carbon is becoming normal practice for many law firms. Ascertaining your carbon footprint, reducing and then offsetting your residual carbon is an approach taken by many. This is a great starting point, but for those businesses keen to take a leadership position, linking your carbon footprint with your social impacts can have real value.

For some larger businesses the social strand of sustainability is the domain of the CSR department and for others it is their philanthropic gestures. For forward thinking businesses, social impact assessment should include stakeholder engagement, both internal and external to the business. Similarly to carbon, stakeholders can be a liability, but really should be viewed as an asset. As an asset, stakeholders’ commitment, time and ideas need to be engaged in supporting the business in addressing its environmental impact. Engaging your employees and the local community does not have to be done in isolation and in fact greater benefit can be gained if these stakeholders are engaged concurrently.

For those businesses wanting to capitalise on the opportunities presented by climate change and sustainability, making the connection between your environmental and social impact is critical. For leaders understanding their business’s economic or financial sustainability is normal. Many are confident of the tried and tested tools they have for ensuring growth year on year. However, using the environmental and social strands of sustainability and therefore tackling climate change to drive profitability and create a strong competitive advantage is less understood.

Engaging key stakeholders

The virtuous relationship between reducing consumption, cost and carbon has a beneficial financial resonance. Engaging key stakeholders also has financial advantages, but less obvious. Building a trusted brand based in part on strong sustainability credentials has proven to lead to successful retention and attraction of good quality employee talent, thereby reducing the cost of recruitment and training. Similarly, the attraction and retention of client loyalty through reputation is critical for sustained responsible growth.

For law firms wanting to develop a winning sustainability strategy and really take meaningful strides towards tackling climate change, bringing together your carbon and stakeholder engagement programmes is essential. Rather than investing in carbon offsetting projects overseas, taking an alternative approach to carbon offsetting that sees investment being made into local community based carbon reduction projects provides the perfect vehicle for staff involvement.

Making the connections between sustainability and climate change has a strong commercial case that should not be ignored. Addressing your environmental and social impacts in an integrated way enables businesses to maximize the advantage of the opportunities presented by the sustainability and climate change agendas.

Shelley Bartlett and Jonathan Ekin, C-Change

Shelley and Jonathan have over a decade of experience in the sustainability industry. They bring together their expertise in both carbon management and stakeholder engagement to provide an integrated sustainability offering to businesses.