The Drawdown Labs Job Function Action Guides will help employees understand how their roles are critical in addressing the climate crisis, as well as implement high-impact solutions and navigate key considerations for taking action inside the workplace.
To make your legal job a climate job:
Corporate governance
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Work with the board’s compensation committee to tie C-suite compensation to achievement of the company’s climate targets.
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Include climate topics in every board meeting agenda.
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Provide climate-related educational opportunities for the board.
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Familiarize yourself with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards for your company’s industry. Organize a training session for your board where you provide an overview of these standards and discuss key risks and opportunities for the company.
- The board’s fiduciary duties require them to pay attention to climate risks—ensure there is oversight of climate impacts at the board level.
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Work with the board to ensure adoption of climate-related commitments with clear and relevant key performance indicators.
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Ensure that oversight of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) activities rests with the board.
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Work with the board’s nominating and governance committee to integrate climate and diversity requirements across its responsibilities. Recruit board members with climate expertise.
- Having diverse representation on the board that spans a spectrum of voices and perspectives ensures climate action taken at the company level is equitable and just. Include climate activists, new or younger directors, Black and Indigenous directors and people of color, women, and members of other underrepresented and historically marginalized groups.
Work with external counsel
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Work with law firms that are committed to offering their clients services that “align and facilitate client decarbonization” and do not work with fossil fuel or other extractive industries. (Take note of the best and worst actors).
- If you work with outside firms on a regular basis, provide a set of “outside counsel guidelines” that incorporate your climate goals.
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Ask law firms to provide information on their emissions (especially if your company reports Scope 3 emissions).
Legal agreements
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Adopt contractual language that addresses climate risks and impacts. (See resources below).
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Work with procurement teams to develop contractual language that requires key customers and suppliers to provide emissions data.
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Familiarize yourself with the physical risks of climate change (e.g., sea-level rise) and, if relevant, adopt contractual language to directly or indirectly allocate risk.
- This may be particularly relevant for real estate transactions, but it is also relevant for understanding risks to your supply chain.
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Work with your insurer to understand your coverage with respect to climate-related disasters, and any opportunities to mitigate climate risk.
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When conducting Know Your Customer processes or due diligence in connection with a transaction, include diligence on the counterparty’s exposure to climate risk.
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Work with your finance team to talk to your bank and other financial providers about the possibility of using green bonds or green loans.
- Companies may be able to obtain more attractive terms if they commit to using debt proceeds to finance climate-friendly projects.
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Work with the human resources and operations team to help them navigate legal requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), to assist them in offering employees a default climate-safe retirement option with competitive financial returns.
Policy and regulation
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Work with your corporate sustainability and public policy teams to educate your board on how shifting environmental laws and climate disclosure regulations affect cost-benefit analyses and business decisions.
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Prepare to disclose emissions data (see proposed Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules).
- Publicly listed companies in the U.S. may soon be required to report on Scope 1 and 2 emissions, along with “material” Scope 3 emissions (see Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures). While not directly subject to these rules, non-publicly-traded companies will still be impacted, as publicly traded counterparties may require reporting of emissions data for Scope 3 purposes.
Team travel
- Minimize carbon-intensive business travel for you and your team, and opt for virtual gatherings. If possible, instead of flying, choose lower-carbon travel options, such as the train.
Fostering dialogue and action
- Build community with other climate-concerned colleagues within your team and beyond. Come together to brainstorm ways you can take action, and raise your collective concern at team and all-staff meetings.