Our planet

Our commitment to the Environment

We recognise that our business activities have global and local impacts on the environment and we're committed to measuring and reducing these. We do this through proactive management of our buildings and support activities, stakeholder and supplier engagement and by investment in emerging clean technologies.

Our environmental policy forms the cornerstone of our activities. It's there to help us minimise our contribution to climate change and pollution, and to support the environmental principles of the UN Global Compact. By engaging with our people, suppliers, communities and clients, we hope to foster change that stretches beyond our boundaries.

We are proud Executive members of the Legal Sustainability Alliance, a movement of law firms committed to taking action to improve the environmental sustainability of our processes. We are also members of the Legal 1.5 Charter, further demonstrating our commitment to ambitious climate action within the legal sector.

Our Ambition and Progress

Climate science and best practice have evolved significantly since we began offsetting emissions in 2006. In response, and to ensure our approach remains credible and robust, we have committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement. We have also set near-term Science Based Targets for 2030, which have been independently validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. These science-based targets are aligned with the latest climate science and aim to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing efforts to restrict warming to 1.5°C.

To deliver on these commitments, we have set the following targets, using a 2019 baseline:

• 50% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions (market-based) by 2030
• 47% reduction in Scope 3 emissions by 2030

Our most recent footprint data shows a 20% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions since 2019, and we remain focused on reducing Scope 3 emissions, which constitute the majority of our footprint.

Carbon reduction and Environmental Management

As pioneers in emissions offsetting within the legal sector since 2006, we continue to lead by example, setting ambitious targets, investing in innovative solutions, and collaborating with our people, clients, suppliers, and communities.

We assess the carbon emissions generated by all our business activities each year, covering our supply chain, business travel, energy use, and waste. We report these findings both internally and in our Carbon Reduction Plan. Our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions are independently verified by an external environmental consultancy.

Taking Action

Our environment network: the green room

The green room is our environmental sustainability network – a space for expansive thinking about the climate emergency and actions we can take to reduce our own environmental footprint, for collaborating with clients to do the same and for achieving greater impact through scale. To be added to our mailing list for events, please contact Ali Crosthwaite, Elisa Bocianowski or Lucian Firth or email thegreenroom@simmons-simmons.com.