Poul Schmith focuses on green transition

As a firm, we take on corporate social responsibility by contributing to the green transition and the ambitions in the Danish Government's Climate Act. With our action plan towards 2030, we want both to reduce our own carbon emission by 70% in scopes 1 and 2 and, where relevant, we try to support green transition in our legal advice to our clients. As far as we know, we are the first Danish law firm that has presented a carbon footprint report. We are proud of this, and it is a testament to corporate social responsibility being very important to our top management.

We take sustainable measures seriously. We do that by trying in various ways to contribute to our clients acting responsibly and making sustainable decisions. In addition to our focus on green transition, we focus on the human aspect where we have programmes for health, diversity and talent development, among others, as well as responsible and modern management.

WE TAKE GREEN RESPONSIBILITY

As a firm, we have launched a large number of initiatives to help us fulfil our sustainable ambitions quickly and efficiently:

• Continued transparency and reporting. We have undertaken to present a carbon footprint report to create transparency about whether the ambition of a 70% reduction in the internal carbon footprint will be achieved before 2030. We presented our third carbon footprint report with data from 2020.

• Focus on power consumption. Electricity certified to come from wind turbines is now being supplied to the majority of our office areas to the extent possible. The remaining areas are leased premises, and we are in dialogue with the landlord about a transition to more green power. Carbon emissions from supplied electricity fell by 31% from 2019 to 2020 and by 51% from 2018 to 2020 in total. The reasons for the reduction are reduced emission factors due to more sustainable energy in the supplied electricity (greener electricity) and that the electricity consumption is also declining due to a change to LED lighting and employees working from home in connection with the COVID 19 pandemic. The power consumption by employees working from home has not been included.

• More green choices in new domicile. We have tried to make green choices in connection with our new domicile at Kalvebod Brygge 32 in Copenhagen, which we moved into in May 2021, by for instance choosing to renovate an existing building. Solar cells were put on the roof (but they do not cover our entire consumption) and charging points were installed next to some parking spaces in connection with the renovation. Our lighting is controlled by sensors and daylight. The building was recently given energy label A.

• Purchases of furniture. Some of our furniture (about half of all newly purchased furniture in terms of pieces) is EU Ecolabel furniture, and long durability and repair/re-use have been a major focus of ours.

• Separation of waste. We have increased our separation of waste for biofuel. Our kitchen and employees separate the food waste in the canteens in Copenhagen and Aarhus. Waste containers have also been placed on all floors in Copenhagen to separate paper, biowaste and small combustibles. Our food waste is collected by Daka ReFood which uses it in the production of biofuel. The most recent statement from the kitchen (pre-COVID-19) shows that our employees generate about 13.5 kg of food waste daily in the food waste containers in the canteen in Copenhagen if about 400 employees eat in the canteen, which is about 34 g per person daily. We are always working on reducing the amount of waste through for instance internal nudging measures.

• Food waste project. Ongoing food waste reduction in our canteens in Copenhagen and Aarhus, both through separation of waste and the concept "The Surplus Box" where employees can buy surplus food to take home.

• Reduced consumption of materials. Reduction in print, printouts and merchandise in connection with events, network events and fairs.

• Phasing out disposable tableware. Reducing the use of all disposable tableware for the purpose of a complete phase-out.

• Offsetting as a supplement to organic (actual) carbon reduction. Since 2020, we have bought climate offsets for the shortfall up to the 70% that we have set as a target. In this way, it is both an expense to the firm to invest in carbon reductions as well as not to invest. The offsetting donations in 2020 and 2021 were targeted at the construction of buildings made out of wooden building elements guaranteed to have a life of minimum 50 years. Trees that grow absorb carbon dioxide, but the carbon dioxide is led back to the atmosphere the moment the trees are cut down and either decomposed or burned for, for example, energy production. The climate effect is therefore back to zero. Read more about the project ”Wooden Building Elements” here. We are in the process of adjusting our goal due to a change in the preparation of our carbon footprint report from 2022. This is why the annual offsetting donation has been postponed to 2023.

• Focus on changed means of transport. The firm has bicycles that can be used for short journeys and meetings in the vicinity.

• Adjusting legal advice where relevant. In addition to our internal focus to contribute to reducing our carbon footprint in “our own back garden”, we still want to continue to make a positive difference through others; our clients and business associates. To an increasing degree, green transition is part of our legal advice, both in the area of ESG and in specific projects such as the Energy Island in the North Sea and the offshore wind farms Thor and Hesselø with a total capacity of about 2 GW, the electrification programme regarding the Danish railways, etc.

CONCITO. As the first law firm in Denmark, we exclusively joined the green think tank CONCITO in 2019. Our attorneys work pro bono in a number of working groups to drive the climate agenda.

UN Global Compact. We have joined UN Global Compact, which is the biggest voluntary initiative for responsible enterprises in the world. The initiative provides a common framework for the communication on corporate progress and commitment in the area of responsible corporate governance. It means that as a firm we commit to report annually on how we work with the dimensions human rights, labour, environment, anti-corruption and the 17 sustainable development goals.

AdvokatKODEKS. We are a member of AdvokatKODEKS where we have committed to report annually on how we work fundamentally with sustainability and ethics in the broad sense, including anti-corruption, environmental and climate considerations, equal rights, diversity, etc.

Puro Earth. In addition to our organic carbon reduction initiatives in 2020 and 2021, we have made an offsetting donation targeted at buildings made out of wooden building elements guaranteed to have a life of minimum 50 years. Trees that grow absorb carbon dioxide, but the carbon dioxide is led back to the atmosphere the moment the trees are cut down and either decomposed or burned for, for example, energy production. The climate effect is therefore back to zero. A solution to this problem is to store carbon dioxide in wooden building elements for minimum 50 years until new trees have grown up. In other words, time has been bought for new trees to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere until the cut down tree has been burned or decomposed if the house is demolished. Our offsetting donation is made through Puro Earth which is a Finnish platform accrediting and checking suppliers manufacturing carbon negative products. Read more about the project ”Wooden Building Elements” here.

BREEAM. As a firm, we want to invest even more in our employees’ well-being and contribute to the green transition and the ambitions in the Danish Government's Climate Act. This is why we have worked together with our landlord, contractors, etc to get our new domicile, Kalvebod Brygge 32, BREEAM certified by making sustainable decisions during the renovation and layout and fitting out process. Read more about BREEAM here.