Sustainability at Bates Wells
Bates Wells have done a lot of work to directly reduce their carbon emissions. The firm reached net zero in 2019, the same year that they formally recognised the climate emergency and biodiversity crises and set up their own Climate Programme. Wanting to go further, Bates Wells worked with fellow B Corps to calculate and balance their emissions to include some under scope 3, such as those from their employees commute to work and home working. The firm has now been measuring their emissions for over 10 years and they produced their first Climate Report in 2020.
With the help of their Climate Programme and support from the wider firm, Bates Wells have set up a range of targets and initiatives to lessen their environmental impact. The firm’s plastic free project aims to significantly reduce the use of single-use plastic in their operations, which have now been cut by 80%. Furthermore, their Print ReLeaf initiative sees the firm offset their printing and they have planted over 280 trees since June 2019. Bates Wells has also updated their supplier questionnaire and code of conduct to push net zero ambitions further down their supply chain.
Many of these ideas come from their people, who the firm actively engage and involve in their collective efforts to lessen their environmental impact. And the firm encourages planet-friendly lifestyle choices. Bates Wells’ workplace pension now includes an option with a sustainable portfolio, and the firm promotes a ‘sustainable swaps’ programme which offers top tips for easy actions that their people can take in their daily lives.
Where they can, Bates Wells supports their people in these sustainable choices, be it setting up recycling points where they can dispose of hard-to-recycle waste such as contact lenses and medicine packets or offering a subsidy to those switching to selected green energy providers. The firm also runs internal talks to contextualise the initiatives they promote, with external speakers joining from think-tanks, B Corps, banks and sustainable businesses. There is more on Bates Wells’ Climate Programme and reducing their environmental impact in their annual Climate Report.
Bates Wells knows that these efforts to lessen their environmental impact are important steps in tackling the climate emergency, but they also want to do more. The firm wants to use their influence and legal expertise to drive change in their social and economic system so they can help accelerate meaningful action on climate this decade.
By preparing a draft of the proposed legislation, Bates Wells supported the Better Business Act campaign to help show how company law could change to apply a ‘triple bottom line approach’ to business, and so align the interests of shareholders with those of wider society and the environment. The firm also works with the Chancery Lane Project to help businesses incorporate climate and net zero aligned clauses into contractual drafting.
Bates Wells’ B Lab Boardroom 2030 activation saw the firm host a climate-focused hackathon to explore their people’s ideas around how they best harness their influence and expertise to drive the change the world needs to see. And the firm looks forward to sharing and actioning some of these ideas in the coming months. Bates Wells knows that collaboration will be key as they move forward. The firm wants others to take the steps they are taking and to inspire others to do more, so that together their people can make even more of a difference.
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