The Chancery Lane Project: bringing legal professionals together to deliver climate targets

Sustainability Solved

The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP) is a pro bono legal initiative that brings thousands of legal professionals together to help businesses fight the climate crisis and achieve net-zero carbon emissions. Managing Director Becky Clissmann joins us to talk about TCLP’s legal clauses that lawyers can use in contracts to help businesses deliver climate targets.

We are also joined by John Perkins, Director, and Senior Corporate Counsel at Salesforce – someone who has used TCLP’s clauses to great effect.

Highlights

· TCLP clauses are free for all of us to use, so lawyers can use them in contracts to help businesses deliver climate targets.

· TCLP is rolling out its clauses to the global community, ensuring that teams all over the world can start to use them in their jurisdictions, as well as undertaking a carbon needs analysis to pinpoint the areas of focus such as built environment, finance sectors, and energy transition.

· John talks about how he first came across TCLP when researching for Salesforce’s sustainability initiative – an initiative that requires suppliers to establish a science-based target to a definitive evaluated approach to mitigating emissions.

· Salesforce used 2 TCLP clauses in the development of its new sustainability initiative: Teddy’s Clause, which is regarding supplier environmental threshold obligations, and Jessica’s Clause, which is more about emissions reporting and climate remediation.

· John explains that supply chain sustainability is a priority for Salesforce as it produces the largest level of emissions.

· John discusses 2 exciting outcomes of implementing TCLP clauses. 1. Their clauses have received a positive reception from suppliers and have boosted cooperation. 2. Salesforce has started to see other corporates, big and small, adopt the same approach.

· Becky highlights the importance of TCLP in allowing lawyers in-house and law firms to do something with their everyday work to really make a difference in the climate crisis.

Resources

The Chancery Lane Project: The Chancery Lane Project

Integrating Sustainability into Salesforce's Supply Chain: https://tinyurl.com/SustContracting

Sustainability Terms from Scratch: https://tinyurl.com/SustFromScratch

Sustainability and Third-Party Assurance: https://tinyurl.com/ThirdPartyAssuranceProviders

IPCC: IPCC — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Science Based Targets initiative: The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) | World Resources Institute (wri.org)