We are one year into the UN "Decade of Action", the final countdown to achieving the shared vision to end poverty, rescue the planet and build a peaceful world, through delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At Herbert Smith Freehills we are pleased to play our part and have recently published our fifth annual Responsible Business report. 

This report serves as our 2021 Communication on Progress, in line with our commitment to implementing the principles of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and contributing to the UN SDGs. We became a signatory to the UNGC in 2016, agreeing to align our strategies and operations with this set of universal principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and to respect and advance these principles through our supply chain and stakeholder relationships.

The report contains highlights of our responsible business practices, which support our people, our clients and wider society, and shows progress we are making each year to help tackle society's biggest challenges. We touch on the SDGs we align to, our key initiatives and some of the commitments we have made in the last year to accelerate our progress. The highlights from the last year include: 

• Launching 10 Actions for Change, our global set of commitments aimed at improving the representation and experience of Black, First Nations, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues. In the wake of the tragic killing of George Floyd, the firm’s leadership began a deeper conversation with its people about improving ethnic diversity across the firm – and how it could work harder to build a supportive, respectful environment where everyone could thrive. Despite working for some time to further diversify the make-up of the firm, those conversations made it clear that more had to be done. The firm launched 10 Actions for Change – a framework and measure of accountability for every region in its global network to address meaningful change appropriate for its people and its communities.

• This year, we have also launched our "Agile 60" initiative – enabling our people to work in the office for an average of 60% of their working time - in direct response to the changes to working practices accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Flexible working practices have a major effect on inclusion, whether by improving mental health and wellbeing or making career choices more accessible for a greater number of people. 

• We also announced our new climate change strategy, aiming to reduce our carbon emissions to Net Zero by 2030. The commitment will see the firm reduce overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, by first reducing the emissions that it produces and then balancing that lower figure with emissions removed from the earth’s atmosphere to reach a net sum of zero. We will do this in a number of ways, including: using clean energy; working with those suppliers who are also committed to reducing emissions; and supporting initiatives that remove any carbon dioxide that the firm produces from the atmosphere. As a leading international law firm, we are clear about our own responsibility to contribute to a sustainable future.

• We also continued to focus our pro bono practice on ways to help strengthen the fundamental principle on which justice is based– the rule of law. We also prioritise matters and projects that focus on social inclusion and capacity building in communities of need. For example, our work this year included strategic advice to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) for a ground-breaking project on the relationship between human rights and technology; legal support for immigrants and refugees; and helping underserved populations break barriers to employment opportunities.

Outside our firm, our greatest impact to the achievement of the SDGs includes assisting our clients with their own approaches to responsible business. We work with major organisations in almost every economic sector globally. Earlier this year we created a new Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Leadership team, streamlining client access to the firm's expertise and specialist capabilities in this area across our network. The practice has been ranked in the highest category by Chambers and Partners, a recognised source of legal sector intelligence, in their global ESG category. We have observed an increasing focus, including from clients, on ESG initiatives across all sectors. With pressure from investors, consumers, employees and governments, ESG issues have become mainstream business topics that redefine the roles of chief legal officers as much as the organisations around them. We examined this development further and interviewed 20 general counsel at major international companies, our findings can be found in our report Responsibility Incorporated. 

For more information on our Responsible Business programmes please take a look at our 2021 report here.