Impact Report 2022
Building a Sustainability Law Firm – The First Year
The first year of business was really a test and experiment of the ways we have integrated sustainability in our business model, and from that, reflect on how we can do better. Our Impact Report shares with you some of the lessons we have learnt and our plans for improvement.
We launched Ben McQuhae & Co in 2021 as a law + ESG offering to apply our skills as lawyers to contribute to the global imperative of building a sustainable future. We determined the best way for us to achieve our objectives was to place sustainability at the heart of our business plan and value proposition. To us, this means:
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We are guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals in selecting the work that we do.
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We support clients through their sustainability transition.
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Our commitment to sustainability is embedded in our own operations.
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We are guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals in selecting the work that we do.
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We support clients through their sustainability transition.
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Take a look at some of the projects we have advised on in the first year:
Project Highlights:
- Structured first offshore trade of high integrity carbon credits from China (CCER)
- Designed, structured and executed digital carbon offset products and solutions
- Advised on the development of blockchain-based platforms for listing and trading of carbon credits, and the issuance and secondary market trading of digital carbon credit derivatives
- Advised on the development of a regional hub for listing, trading and retiring high integrity carbon credits
Take a look at some of the projects we have advised on in the first year:
We assist our clients with designing, structuring and executing green (digital) investment products and developing sustainable financing platforms and fintech solutions.
Project Highlights:
- Developed green digital asset-backed securities to facilitate fundraising for a climate-aligned asset
- Developing a blockchain-based platform for issuance and secondary market trading of impact-driven digital investment products
- Developing a blockchain-based platform that aims to offer sustainable finance as a service, focusing on digital green bonds
Project Highlights:
- Structured first offshore trade of high integrity carbon credits from China (CCER)
- Designed, structured and executed digital carbon offset products and solutions
- Advised on the development of blockchain-based platforms for listing and trading of carbon credits, and the issuance and secondary market trading of digital carbon credit derivatives
- Advised on the development of a regional hub for listing, trading and retiring high integrity carbon credits
We assist our clients in navigating emerging ESG regulatory and policy developments, developing appropriate ESG governance structures, policies and controls, and advising on ESG compliance.
Project Highlights:
- Assessed a listed company’s ESG governance structure and internal policies and procedures to evaluate whether it enables company directors to properly discharge their ESG-related legal and regulatory obligations
- Assisted a listed fund manager in navigating SFC’s new ESG regulation regarding climate-related risks, and advised on its compliance with SFC and HKEX’s regulatory requirements
Project Highlights:
- Designed, structured and executed REC and digital REC products and solutions
We provide corporate and commercial legal support to clients who are contributing to the global imperative of building a sustainable future, for instance, M&A, investment, fundraising, general commercial matters, etc.
Such clients include:
- A blockchain-based platform for issuance and secondary market trading of digital environmental attributes
- A sustainability data platform that aims to drive best practices in sustainable investing
- A climate risk SaaS platform that aims to deliver precise predictive analytics at a granular level
- A sustainability consulting firm that supports clients on reducing their corporate environmental footprint and carbon management
- A sustainable agriculture project
- A non-profit organization promoting green finance and investment
- A B2B online marketplace for premium to luxury lifestyle products connecting Asian creators and artisans to global buyers
Our Impact Model
As a law firm, the starting point we naturally arrived at for contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was through supporting clients and projects that advance the SDGs.
However, as we test drove our business model during our first year of business, we discovered that we were able to deliver more impact than we initially expected. Besides having an indirect impact through our clients, we can deliver direct impact through helping our clients identify ways in which they can integrate positive ESG/sustainability outcomes into projects that did not previously show positive alignment with the SDGs. This has allowed us as a law firm to deliver additionality through facilitating more positive outcomes.
At the inception of our law firm, we have made a commitment to provide legal support only to projects that bring a positive impact. Here is how we have delivered on this commitment:
Positively SDG-aligned Mandates
*Assessed according to our SDG Tracker. We track our impact by number of mandates, and not number of clients that we have supported – we may receive one or more mandates from the same client.
We support clients and projects that:
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Develop sustainable products and/or services that are SDG-aligned, or enables other actors in their sustainability transition
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Advance their organisation’s own sustainability transition
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Develop the infrastructure of a sustainable economy
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Channel financing towards SDG objectives
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Develop innovative structures, products and/or platforms to expand the means of raising sustainable financing
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Develop sustainable products and/or services that are SDG-aligned, or enables other actors in their sustainability transition
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Advance their organisation’s own sustainability transition
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Develop the infrastructure of a sustainable economy
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Channel financing towards SDG objectives
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Develop innovative structures, products and/or platforms to expand the means of raising sustainable financing
These are the UN Sustainable Development Goals that the clients and projects we have supported in the past year primarily contribute to:
We have been able to influence our clients to integrate positive outcomes into projects that were initially assessed to be neutrally or negatively aligned with the SDGs, and as a result, deliver additionality:
Establishing a B2B e-commerce platform for Asia-sourced artisan products
Client agreed to work together to adopt a framework for sustainable e-commerce operations, addressing environmental impacts and ethical sourcing.
Client looking to create liquidity for real assets (an LNG carrier) through tokenisation
Client agreed to consider potential green financing structures, which allows the shipping industry to raise funds to support the much needed decarbonisation of the industry.
Fintech developer of a blockchain-based alternative asset marketplace
We worked with the client to develop an impact framework to support the client’s objective to develop the platform as an impact / purpose investing marketplace, enabling the client to assess potential listings for impact performance, and to manage impact performance of the asset throughout its listing.
One of our sustainability commitments is to only take on mandates that are positively-aligned with the SDGs. We have not deviated from our commitment. Here are the mandates that we turned down:
Project developer of new crude oil refinery
We declined this potential mandate as we did not want to contribute to carbon lock-in.
Central to our impact governance is our SDG Tracker, which is the tool we developed to help us assess the net impact of potential mandates.
In addition to the client work that we do, we also try to advance the sustainability agenda through actively contributing to various industry initiatives. Here are some of them:
Our carbon footprint
Scope 1
N/A
Tonnes CO2e
EMISSION BREAKDOWN
Activity: Leakage from refrigerants in air-conditioner
We are unable to obtain the necessary data from our property management company.
Scope 2
1.49
Tonnes CO2e
EMISSION BREAKDOWN
Activity: Office electricity consumption
Activity Data: 2099.2 kWh
Emission factor: 0.71 kg CO2e
GHG Emissions (Tonnes CO2e): 1.49 tonnes CO2e
Energy use data extracted from utility bills
Emission factor extracted from HK Electric’s Sustainability Report 2021
Scope 3
0.78
Tonnes CO2e
EMISSION BREAKDOWN
Activity Data: 17.46 kg
Emission factor: 4.8 kg CO2e
GHG Emissions (Tonnes CO2e): 0.084 tonnes CO2e
Emission factor taken from the “Guidelines to Account for and Report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals for Buildings in Hong Kong (2010 Edition)” from Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department and Electrical and Mechanical Services Department
GHG Emissions (Tonnes CO2e): 0.7 tonnes CO2e
Emissions calculations made using the Hong Kong Environment and Ecology Bureau's “Low Carbon Living Calculator”
Activity Data: 0 kg
Emission factor: 0 kg CO2e
GHG Emissions (Tonnes CO2e): 0 tonnes CO2e
GHG Emissions (Tonnes CO2e): 0.71 tonnes CO2e
GHG Emissions (Tonnes CO2e): 1.21 tonnes CO2e
Our Next Steps on our Decarbonization Journey
We have taken a significant first step in our decarbonization journey in our first year of business by establishing our emissions baseline, which has helped us to reflect on the operational practices we have implemented at the outset of our firm to evaluate whether they were effective in helping us keep our carbon footprint as low as possible, and achieving carbon neutrality.
We recognize that while significant it is still our first step. There is still lots to tackle, and here are some of the improvements we strive to make in the coming year:
We believe that our human capital is our most valuable asset. Diversity and inclusion are therefore more than core values.
Our firm is the collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, creativity, self-expression, unique capabilities and talent of our team members.
We actively seek diversity as we grow. Read more about our DEI philosophy.
Our Sustainability Commitments for 2022-2023
As we reflect on our achievements and lessons from our first year, we have made the following sustainability commitments to improve and enhance our firm’s capability to deliver positive impact:
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We are exploring ways to enhance our impact delivery and additionality through our engagement letters.
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We are committed to growing our team and to diversity. We will continue to actively seek out lawyers and ESG professionals who share our values to join us and further expand our skillsets and perspectives.
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We will continue to explore how we can expand on our Scope 3 emissions reporting to include clients’ emissions in our carbon footprint calculation, as well as improve the quality of the data we have currently used for our service providers’ emissions.
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We are in the process of committing to our net-zero target through SBTi.
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We are already a near-paperless office and are working on upgrading our recycling initiatives to make our operations more circular.