Higgs on the bumpy road to net zero

Nyree Applegarth, partner at Higgs, heads up the firm’s  Green Committee. Here she looks at the firm’s successes and the challenges faced on the road to net zero and operating sustainably.

Like many law firms across the country, Higgs has significantly increased its focus on sustainability and the environment in recent years – but it’s not been without its challenges.

As a responsible business, we’re committed to playing our part in protecting our impact on the planet, the environment, conserving resources and the local community. SMEs such as Higgs contribute half of all business-driven carbon emissions in the UK, according to the British Business Bank, so it’s important that we take our responsibility seriously.

We are committed to ensuring, wherever possible, that our operations have a positive impact on our people, our clients, our business partners and our community.

Our primary goals as a firm are to manage our business in a manner consistent with the transition to net zero and to achieve net zero as soon as possible, to recycle 100% of our office waste, to reduce waste, eliminate single use plastics from the business and to achieve local and sustainable sourcing wherever possible.

We also frequently raise awareness of environmental issues with our people and encourage employees and our business partners to also live more sustainably,

These are all very noble and important goals but the first hurdle we encountered was answering a simple question: what was the firm’s carbon footprint?

The truth is we had no idea – and we needed outside help. If you don’t know what your carbon footprint is, how can you improve it or set meaningful goals? We enlisted carbon specialists, who were able to tell us that we used a moderate 150,000 kgco2e each year and that our largest usage was electricity.

Armed with some tangible data, we are now able to plan for the future.

Using a verified renewable energy provider is a sizeable commitment from a business, particularly at the moment when prices are so high, as it typically means paying more for electricity.

The rising problem of greenwashing is something we are also learning to be guarded against. Too many companies are offering services and products which claim environmental benefits that simply don’t exist. Experience and increased knowledge are helping us to identify those businesses genuinely backing the cause from the unscrupulous money makers.

Understanding our carbon footprint was just the start of our green journey. Last year, we implemented monthly litter picking around our office to ensure our immediate environment is clean and tidy. Against our expectations, this has proved to be one of the most popular team activities we’ve ever held.

We’ve also trained all of our property lawyers so they can advise on Green Leasing commitments and highlight the need for landlords, tenants and all building owners to consider energy efficiencies and working together to improve a buildings EPC.

Recently, we held a vegetable growing demonstration for our people to ignite a passion in self-sufficiency and a team took part in the Big Green Hike back in April raising funds for Dudley Canal and River Trust.

Our people are regularly involved in community projects in the local area, including gardening and weeding, and we are hosting a Green event at Higgs HQ in June where our staff will have the chance to try and buy refillable products and stop buying new plastics time and time again. Additionally, tips will be shared on recycling and reusing products and how people can live more sustainably.

In September, we’ll be supporting World Car Free Day by encouraging staff to take another mode of transport into the office. In November, we have plans for an event to mark Vegan Day – and we recently marked the King’s coronation by partnering with The Future Forest Company to plant 225 sapling trees across the country, one for every employee. Our people were absolutely thrilled with that – I’ve never had so many positive messages.

We’ve still got a way to go – achieving net zero is a challenge – but I’m very proud of how far we’ve already come. We can only succeed if we’re all pulling in the same direction.