At A&O Shearman, we have a responsibility as a leading global law firm to act in the best interests of our clients, our people and wider society. Being a diverse, inclusive and impactful firm, we aim to conduct our business in balance with the main global challenges represented by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Our goal is to be an integral part of sustainable development and the responsible transition to Net Zero by focusing on our direct and indirect operational impacts on climate, society and nature.
We work together across our firm to identify and implement innovative solutions and projects that address our environmental impacts. We are facing the challenges of the climate and nature emergencies, while ensuring our actions do not harm vulnerable communities.
We are continuously reviewing and improving the environmental performance of our own operations as well as that of our value chain.
In May 2021, Allen & Overy set certified science-based targets to halve our global direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 against the 2019 baseline. In 2025 we will re-baseline our emissions as A&O Shearman to extend our commitment.
We are committed to environmental sustainability as a core value and a strategic priority.
We align our global goals and targets with the needs and opportunities of our diverse and dynamic network, and we empower our people to take local action and share best practice from every region.
All our offices contribute to meeting our carbon reduction and environmental targets, and implementing operational management projects that make a difference.
Our carbon reduction strategy focuses on five strategic areas, under the leadership of our Sustainability Governance Working Group.
Our 2024 environmental sustainability priorities are:
Our progress against the emissions target between 2019 and 2022 is summarized below.
The environmental working groups support four out of ten of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
Our carbon footprint covers all relevant scopes and emissions categories.
Our global performance for our most material metrics between 2019 and 2022 is summarized below.
Every year we offset all emissions traditionally associated with our operations, namely:
Our latest offsetting projects are:
Our approach is underpinned by our ISO 14001 (UK and Netherlands) certified environmental management systems. The scope of our management systems is:
We are also actively looking at expanding the coverage of our ISO 14001.
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