Not many people know that the Law Society is an award-winning honey producer! Relatively young in beekeeping terms, the Society started with only one hive three years ago, at the behest of beekeeper Bill O’Neill. Since April 2020, the colony has grown to four hives, producing the award-winning ‘Blackhall Honey from the Law Society at Oxmanstown Green’

As we move forward, we are committed to monitoring, measuring, and continuously improving our ESG performance to create a positive impact and meet the expectations of our staff, members and students.

In 2019, we began our environmental journey with the creation of the EAST Taskforce and by setting up the Glas Committee in the Law Society. Since then, many measures have been implemented across the organisation to decrease carbon footprint.

ESG strategy

In line with the creation of a 2024 strategy, the Law Society is also creating an ESG strategy that will see the Society:

• Assess the Law Society’s current ESG performance and identify relevant issues,

• Set specific and measurable goals that align with our vision and mission,

• Engage stakeholders to understand their concerns and gather input,

• Integrate ESG considerations into our core business strategy, policies, and procedures,

• Establish a robust monitoring system to measure and track progress, including carbon emissions on an annual basis,

• Foster a culture of sustainability within the legal profession in Ireland,

• Continuously improve and innovate to adapt to emerging reporting standards,

• Develop resources to educate and enable the legal community in Ireland to drive their own sustainability agendas, and

• Achieve an independent sustainability certification (for example, the Green Flag).

Carbon emissions

In order to get a true representation of the carbon emissions of the Law Society, in the second quarter of 2023, we started the process of measuring all emissions across the activity of the Law Society for 2022, including:

Scope 1: any direct emissions, such as emissions from on-site combustion of fossil fuels,

Scope 2: any indirect greenhouse gas emissions associated with the generation of purchased electricity or heat,

Scope 3: all indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur in the value chain of the Law Society, including emissions from activities, such as purchased goods and services, transportation, and waste disposal.

As part of Scope 3, a full business analysis was carried out to identify the source of emissions, and
includes:

• Travel by all Law Society staff,

• The impact of employees working from home offices,

• Travel by all students and members to events, including education activity, exams, and CPD events,

• All print, including the Law Society Gazette,

• All IT infrastructure, including electronic devices and data storage,

• All food and drink consumed in the Law Society in 2022.

The full report on the carbon footprint, along with reduction strategies, will be included in an ESG report in due course. We look forward to working with all stakeholders on our ESG journey.