How In-House Counsel Can Help Launch Sustainability Initiatives: A Practical Guide

As organizations continue to pursue sustainability initiatives, in-house counsel may be uniquely positioned to help drive meaningful impact beyond managing compliance required for applicable laws (e.g., U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, European Union, and California climate disclosure regulations).  Many legal team members may wonder how to effectively contribute to those sustainability initiatives while maintaining their core responsibilities. As someone who has navigated this journey— serving as in-house counsel at Fortune 100 and startup companies —I've learned that legal counsel can be a catalyst for burgeoning sustainability initiatives.

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Leveraging Legal's Unique Organizational Position

The desire to drive sustainability in any of its forms may face challenges in the coming years but I do not expect U.S. organizations to completely relinquish this opportunity. Legal team members can find themselves passionate about impact  and deeply invested in the organization's success yet not direct owners of corporate policy or strategy. While legal teams excel at managing both opportunity and risk across various practice areas, they typically don't create or own "non-legal" corporate policy or strategy for the organization. This position, however, can be advantageous when approaching sustainability initiatives.

Before diving in, let's dispel a poor caricature: in-house lawyers are risk adverse nay-sayers unnecessarily stemming progress. To leverage a legal team’s unique position, it must be a strategic partner able to wield its broad visibility across the organization as well as their experience in internal policy development. This comprehensive view of operations and strategy, combined with sharp analytical skills, positions in-house counsel to uniquely facilitate sustainability initiatives.

Here's one practical roadmap:

1. Start with Information Gathering

Before diving into ambitious sustainability goals, begin with fundamental groundwork:

• Assess current sustainability initiatives across the organization
• Identify what has been attempted in the past
• Map out interested stakeholders
• Understand existing sustainability-related activities, even if they're not labeled as such

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2. Define Your Scope

Gather interested employees to answer a crucial question: what does "sustainability" mean for your organization? Consider all aspects:

• Environmental sustainability
• Social sustainability
• Economic sustainability and or
• Cultural sustainability

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3. Build Your Business Case

Legal teams excel at crafting clear and compelling arguments. Use this skill to build support by addressing:

• Regulatory requirements
• Contractual customer requirements for sustainability metrics
• Competitive advantages and business value in your market
• Sales team needs and use cases for sustainability data
• Community demands
• Prospective employee interests
• Industry conference participation and visibility

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4. Leverage Existing Enthusiasm

One of the most valuable aspects of sustainability initiatives is their ability to unite various employees (including across departments). Use your legal team's connections to:

• Identify potential champions in different departments
• Connect with employees seeking development opportunities
• Support those looking to create sales advantages
• Channel enthusiasm into structured progress

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5. Obtain Buy-In

You will likely need to obtain buy-in and executive support for the bandwidth and dollars needed to create alignment on organization wide sustainability strategy. 

• Identify your sponsor
• Create your position paper, deck, etc. (consistent with how successful strategy and initiatives are pitched)
• Drive credibility in relation to the business case and opportunity (e.g., data, requirements, time frames cost, impact of the failure to act, etc.) not simply and solely focusing on the “feel good”
• Understand how systems of power and influence work at your organization; don’t assume based merely on the org chart
• Avoid promising “the world” especially if you don’t know what sustainability data you will unearth

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6. Start with Measurement

Before making promises internally or externally or setting goals, the organization should first know its impact today as it reasonably can and its values (i.e., harkening back to business case). So, you should:

• Determine what you aim to measure (e.g., water usage, GHG emissions, diversity, etc.)
• Establish baseline measurements
• Consider engaging external firms for credibility
• Use data to inform realistic goal-setting
• Assess your data findings in context
• Prioritize your findings in alignment with your values and business case

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7. Avoid Common Pitfalls

Remember these key principles:

• Don't simply copy competitors' sustainability goals
• Base your journey on your organization's unique position
• You don’t have to measure “all the things” at once; consider current operations, disclosure requirements, budget constraints, and bandwidth constraints
• Maintain detailed records of all initiatives, successful or not

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The Path Forward

While eventually your organization may need talent to uptake the responsibilities of an ESG controller, sustainability director, ESG data manager, and possibly a climate scientist in certain scenarios, remember, you don't need specialized sustainability credentials to make an impact, especially at the beginning of the journey. The tools you use every day in your role as legal counsel  (e.g., organization, clarity, building trust, aligning across teams, seeing the big picture, project management, and leadership) are valuable for sustainability initiatives. While organizational success is not guaranteed, good record-keeping and methodical progress can ensure that even initial setbacks contribute to eventual success.

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Key Takeaways for Legal Teams:

• Use your broad organizational visibility to identify opportunities and initial partners
• Leverage your policy-making experience
• Start with measurement before making commitments
• Build coalitions across departments
• Maintain detailed records of the process, considerations, vendors, and the initiatives themselves

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Ready to champion sustainability from your legal seat at the table? Start by mapping your organization's current sustainability landscape this week - identify one ongoing initiative and one potential ally in another department. Small steps lead to meaningful change, and your legal expertise is more valuable than you might think.

About Planet FWD: We provide enterprise decarbonization software that helps companies measure, reduce, and report their carbon emissions. Our platform specifically serves businesses in the food, beverage, and apparel industries, enabling them to meet net zero targets and satisfy reporting requirements for CDP, EU regulations, and investor demands. For more information about how Planet FWD can support your organization's sustainability journey, visit planetfwd.com.