Our environment
Minimising environmental impact and fostering responsible business practices at Russell-Cooke
Our responsible procurement policy
In September 2024 the firm introduced a responsible procurement policy. Director of Finance Samuel Allen and legal director and Head of Environment on our Responsible Business Committee, Alix Rejman, discuss why we have introduced the policy, how it will evolve and how it fits within the wider picture of our environmental commitments.
What is it?
We have a long-held commitment to responsible procurement, which has always included striving to make ethical buying decisions. In some cases we have been ahead of the curve, such as in our early adoption of the London living wage, which we have had in place for a number of years.
We define responsible procurement as having three main components: social value, environmental sustainability and ethical sourcing.
Why do we need it?
The motivation for creating a procurement policy was to further formalise our approach, and to ensure greater transparency and accountability in our supply chain, and move away from individual judgement.
As a responsible business we have a duty to use our spending power to the benefit of our community and the environment. We don’t just expect this of ourselves – our stakeholders expect it of us too. We know, and are encouraged to see, that responsible sourcing is a growing expectation of all businesses, with clients looking beyond cost to decide who they work with, with ESG credentials a key factor in purchasing decisions.
Our three-year strategic plan commits our firm (and in particular its leadership) to ensuring that climate change is a central factor in all decision making affecting our business. Operating sustainably is rooted in our own values and we now have a policy that sets the same expectations for our external suppliers.
How does our responsible procurement policy fit into our wider environmental activities?
Our responsible procurement policy is informed by the wider commitments we have made in relation to environmental sustainability.
We are working to achieve greater alignment between these initiatives and our policy. For example, last year we joined the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), which commits us to decreasing our Scope 1 emissions by 50% by 2030 and to report on progress annually. Similarly, we have an ongoing commitment to reducing waste through re-use, recycling and donations, and have a project team in place to actively explore ways to eliminate it entirely. In line with this, we have signed up to the Greener Litigation Pledge to minimise the environmental impact of our dispute resolution practice including by using electronic rather than paper communications and documents where possible and avoiding unnecessary travel.
We want to see this translate directly into our procurement policy in the form of an explicit commitment to working with carbon neutral providers and those who are working to reduce waste.
There are many complexities to cut through. For example, what might appear as a zero-carbon energy scheme could be contributing to nuclear waste. In that scenario, we would look to source our energy from a perhaps more expensive supplier that utilised non-nuclear renewables. It is important that we are continuously working towards honouring all of our environmental commitments when making procurement decisions, however challenging that can sometimes be.
What do we consider when choosing a supplier?
The question to ask at the outset is, who are we considering working with and paying money to, and do they reflect our values?
When drawing up our supplier checklist, we believed it was important to put ourselves in our clients’ shoes and ask, “if they were applying our responsible procurement criteria would they choose Russell-Cooke?” That helped bring into focus what our core considerations are.
As a living wage employer, we strongly prefer suppliers that are accredited living wage employers. So, in the event that two suppliers met the other requirements on our supplier checklist equally, this would take priority. We also actively seek out the opportunity to procure from local suppliers and those with a clear commitment to environmental sustainability.
Naturally, there is flexibility within the policy to recognise nuance and ensure that when we are making these decisions, we are always considering client needs.
As a responsible business we have a duty to use our spending power to the benefit of our community and the environment.
What is the scope of the policy?
As a firm we rely on multiple services and goods provided by external suppliers – from the barristers we instruct, through to the technology solutions we buy and use, to the tea and coffee we serve in our meeting rooms.
Accordingly, our responsible procurement policy is comprehensive, consciously and deliberately encompassing everything the firm procures. It therefore calls for the understanding and support of every legal team and business services function in the firm.
This is a significant project, but one that is essential. If we believe that, in our position as a law firm, we have a responsibility in this area, it is correct and inevitable that setting the same standards for our clients should be the future direction.
What stage of implementation is the policy at?
Under the guidance of our Environmental Group and pursuant to a commitment made in the firm’s previous Responsible Business Reports, the policy was rolled out across the firm in September 2024.
We know that our people already instinctively check suppliers for their adherence to sustainability and to responsible business principles, but our next challenge is to ensure the policy is fully socialised and embedded in our practices. To this end, we are planning an internal communications campaign to raise further awareness of the policy’s existence and its requirements of our people, which will include asking them to report back on what they already do and may do differently in future, as well as where they have ideas which we can implement at a wider level to best aide and promote the policy.
We recognise the importance of the policy translating into action, and will be gathering feedback from the members of staff who make procurement decisions to understand whether they have faced any challenges when using the supplier checklist.
The decision-making process is often not simple – one supplier might have an environmentally friendly delivery route, and another a clear commitment to training and awareness raising around modern slavery. Although the policy provides much-needed structure and rigour, there are unavoidably grey areas. Individual judgement will remain key, so it is critical that we give our people the information and tools to feel confident when making those judgements.
How do we see the policy evolving in the coming months and years?
Currently, the focus of the policy is on the firm’s procurement decisions. In the future, we will look to expand it to better support our clients to procure responsibly.
This is a significant project, but one that is essential. If we believe that, in our position as a law firm, we have a responsibility in this area, it is correct and inevitable that setting the same standards for our clients should be the future direction.
How will we ensure the policy remains a strategic focus?
Our Responsible Business Committee, which was formed in 2022 to oversee and co-ordinate the firm’s existing responsible business activities, developed and will monitor the success of the responsible procurement policy. The introduction of the policy was included as a commitment in our 2023 Responsible Business report, and we will continue to set and report on objectives that we can measure progress against.
Our internal Environmental Group, which feeds into the Responsible Business Committee, acts as a working group and a forum for ideas and initiatives to support the policy and the firm’s wider commitments in the area of sustainability. Importantly, the group includes representation from across the firm, ensuring a diversity of ideas and opinions are considered.
What supporting our environment means to me
Sam Morris
Associate
Sustainable and responsible business is the only real way to make an impact on climate change. Starting from the ground up encourages systemic change and tangible progress helps make the world a less cynical place.
Josie Crone
Business development executive
For me, supporting the environment means making eco-friendly choices, such as being vegetarian as well as cycling to work, which is both sustainable and enjoyable.
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