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We recognise the current climate and ecological crisis and the need to take urgent action to protect the natural world on which we all depend. We aim to take action for an environmentally sustainable future that positively impacts our community.
We seek to minimise our environmental impact and pursue sustainable solutions, considering the environment in terms of carbon, waste, procurement, travel, as well as industry and community engagement.
2025 Target |
Status |
Progress |
|---|---|---|
Launch the firm’s Climate Taskforce to undertake a full assessment of climate change risk and opportunity and develop an action plan. |
Complete |
Climate Taskforce kicked off with a senior leadership workshop in Autumn 2025, with more sprints planned for year ahead to complete this important work. |
Identify scope 1 and 2 carbon reduction opportunities through adoption and delivery of ESOS action plan. |
Ongoing |
A full energy assessment has been conducted in each of our offices and the ESOS Action Plan contains 14 actions. |
Develop and implement sustainable travel policy. |
Ongoing |
Collaborated with students from University of Bristol to identify behaviours relating to business travel to assess improved sustainability. Working to improve data collection and identify key reduction areas across business travel, especially UK internal flights. |
Distribute a carbon emissions pack to smaller suppliers and revise our Supplier Questionnaire to provide additional focus on environmental issues. |
Ongoing |
An updated carbon emissions information pack has been prepared, and a new Supplier Due Diligence system is due to be implemented which will replace the Supplier Questionnaire. The information pack will be distributed as part of the supplier onboarding process. |
2026 Ambition |
Status |
Year 5 progress |
Achieving carbon neutrality across scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3 (business travel). |
Pivoted |
Our new partnership with Oxygen Conservation means we are now buying some of the highest quality, nature-focused woodland carbon credits in the UK in-line with our Scope 1, 2 and business travel emissions. However, we have moved away from using the phrase “carbon neutrality” and will be looking to set a net zero target in the future. |
To make progress again our Science Based Target of a 50% reduction in Scope 1, 2 (MB) and 3 emissions by 2030 against a 2019 baseline. |
On track |
Between 2019 and 2024, we have reduced emissions by approximately 19%. |
To achieve a waste reuse/recycling rate of at least 80%. |
Attention needed |
In 2024, our average recycling rate across all offices was 59%. This is against a backdrop of significantly reduced waste per employee, but we are actively looking at ways to improve this in year ahead. |
Data shown is from our baseline year and the last three years.
Our environmental performance continues to improve year on year, reflecting our commitment to sustainability. The chart below shows how Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions compare with our 2019 baseline, highlighting progress towards reducing our carbon footprint.
At Burges Salmon we are committed to meaningful climate action. We are working towards our approved science-based target to reduce carbon emissions by 50% across Scope 1, 2 and 3 by 2030 against a 2019 baseline, aligned with efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C. To help accelerate progress this year we invested in a new Environment Manager role to bring in specialist expertise and strengthen our approach. We also continue to procure electricity backed by REGO certificates for all offices.
We are now developing a long-term net zero strategy, with plans to set an SBTi-approved net zero target. Alongside this, we continue to engage with initiatives such as CDP, in which we improved to B- in 2025 from C in the previous year, as well as the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance. We are proud to have achieved an 86/100 environmental score from EcoVadis, up from 70/100 in 2024. This progress sits alongside our ongoing efforts to collaborate within the sector and support clients on their decarbonisation journeys.
This year we announced the signing of a landmark nature-focused carbon partnership valued at up to £1 million with leading natural capital asset manager Oxygen Conservation. As part of the agreement, we will be the exclusive buyer of up to 8,000 premium-quality, UK-based carbon credits which will be provided at £125 per tonne.
Funding one of the UK’s most ambitious nature restoration projects on the beautiful Leighon Estate in Dartmoor, Devon, the partnership demonstrates an important shift in how the voluntary carbon market operates – moving from transactional offsets to transformative investments that deliver measurable environmental and social benefits.
Importantly, the credits generated by this project go far beyond simply sequestering carbon; they are designed to deliver deep, lasting ecological value, connecting with a biodiversity scheme to form larger, more resilient and diverse ecosystems.
We are committed to reducing waste and promoting reuse and recycling wherever possible, with segregated waste streams established across all our offices. While our recycling rate has remained consistent for the past three years, we have achieved a substantial reduction in our waste volumes since our 2019 baseline. The amount of waste generated per person each month has fallen by 70% from 23kg in 2019 to 6.8kg in 2024, through a combination of interventions and better reporting accuracy. Our internal Waste and Recycling Action Group continues to seek ways to improve our waste management and recycling rates.
In September 2023, we launched a major multi-office refurbishment with sustainability at its heart. In Bristol, Edinburgh, and London, we have embedded circular economy principles into every phase, keeping materials in use, reducing waste, and choosing products with strong sustainability credentials.
In Bristol, we have removed gas from kitchens, reupholstered meeting chairs, and donated over 164 tonnes of furniture and equipment to 94 good causes, including charities, NHS trusts, and other not-for-profits. These efforts have prevented more than 164 tonnes of materials from ending up in recycling, energy recovery, or landfill, and avoided over 270 tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
Edinburgh is following suit, with reuse-first audits, creative repurposing, and a zero waste to landfill target. Across all sites, our contractors are held to high sustainability standards, with dedicated sustainability managers and carbon reporting built into every stage.
In May, we launched our new partnership with Avon Needs Trees, dedicated to enhancing nature and biodiversity. We are supporting the establishment of their Lower Chew Forest site and have already planted 1,050 trees in 2025. Each year, our people will participate in volunteering days with Avon Needs Trees, contributing to the planting and care of trees on site. The partnership will also feature educational events with our clients, people, and communities, promoting sustainable living and actions to protect and restore nature.
Green Week 2025 was a vibrant, firm-wide celebration of sustainability led by our BSustainable employee network, bringing together colleagues across Bristol, London, and Edinburgh for a week of conscious commuting, creative reuse, community engagement, and financial empowerment. From bike checks and book swaps to ESG-aligned pension talks and mindful walks, the programme reflected Burges Salmon’s environmental values in action – culminating in the gifting of branded reusable steel cups to mark our recognition as Best Law Firm to Work At 2025.
This year we have introduced a Supplier Code of Conduct, which is available on our website. The Code of Conduct sets out our expectations, including to work in the spirit of collaboration and continual improvement, and the expectation that suppliers calculate their own carbon emissions for the purposes of reporting.
Over the next 12 months, we will enhance our approach by introducing a new online Supplier Due Diligence tool that will assess suppliers’ responses to corporate and regulatory questions, including those relating to environmental requirements.
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