Clifford Chance

In year two of its sustainable procurement programme, and to support is ambition of becoming net zero, Clifford Chance is working with EcoVadis to introduce a new carbon action module to its supply chain in order to monitor supplier GHG emissions, waste and energy consumption.

Clifford Chance partnered with EcoVadis, the 'world's most trusted provider' of business sustainability ratings in 2020, to help us monitor both our own and our suppliers' sustainability performance against a globally recognised methodology aligned to the United Nations Global Compact, International Labour Organization, Global Reporting Initiative and ISO26000.

In doing so we became the first law firm globally to roll out our own sustainable procurement programme using the EcoVadis platform.

Supply chain engagement is crucial in Clifford Chance achieving its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) commitments, and the partnership with EcoVadis is allowing us to work alongside suppliers to help them reduce their negative environmental and social impacts, while allowing us to move closer to fulfilling our own ambition of becoming net zero. It's also enabling us to independently assess our suppliers against other processes criteria, including labour and human rights, ethical practices and controls, and ensuring we're working with suppliers that support our own business objectives and strategy.

Additionally, our EcoVadis rating will help ensure we have best practices for our people and are able to lead the market in our own sustainability ambitions.

The carbon action module will help us to provide a more in-depth analysis of indirect and direct GHG emissions, energy consumption and waste associated with our supply chain. The outputs of our reporting will help inform the discussions we have with our suppliers, providing quantification of our scope 3 emissions categories and ‘Hot Spots’, helping us to focus efforts to develop carbon reduction initiatives and targets.

Roger Leese, Partner, said: "Increasingly clients require firms to disclose their sustainability measures and practices. As participants in the UN Global Compact, and with a long-standing commitment to support the Sustainable Development Goals, we have a strong foundation, but we are ready to work with our suppliers and clients to build on this. The work we're doing with EcoVadis is really helping us and enabling us to articulate and report against the ESG commitments we have made."

Patrick Glydon, Chief Financial Officer, said: "I'm immensely proud of the work that the Procurement team is doing to support our ESG ambitions as a firm. The collaboration with EcoVadis is helping us on our way to building a more sustainable future and is aligned to the core values of the Firm.  It was great to see how many of our suppliers engaged with us at our sustainable procurement programme event in April."

Chris Emberton, Procure to Pay Director, said: "We take seriously the influence that we have on our suppliers and together we can drive real, positive change. When we launched the programme a year ago our focus was on creating a simple, yet practical way to measure both our and our suppliers' performance against our responsible sourcing standards. The recent introduction of the new carbon action module allows us to take that principle further to now measure and consider carbon footprint."

Sarah Robertson, Regional Manager, Customer Success - Northern Europe at EcoVadis, said: “Clifford Chance recognises that the journey toward net zero is a shared global commitment that goes beyond its business’ own four walls. We are pleased to help the firm take great strides toward achieving its ESG goals by empowering Clifford Chance to engage its supply base in its efforts.”

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More detail about our Responsible Business strategy and approach can be found here.

Clifford Chance is also a founding member of the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance, a coalition committed to accelerating transition to net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner – more detail about this initiative can be found here.

For information about how we work with our suppliers, please refer to our Supplier Code and Standards.