GREEN GUIDE EMEA 2023: Lithuania
FORT
Baltic law firm FORT regularly advises clients on environmental, energy and infrastructure projects. Its Lithuanian team stands out for its work assisting organisations with becoming more sustainable and complying with environmental regulations.
In an ongoing highlight, Emilis Cicenas is advising Circle K, a leading convenience store and gas station operator, on reducing its environmental footprint by employing solar power capacities and complying with national biofuels regulations.
Cicenas also recently acted for Elmoris, a leading manufacturer of lug caps, in a range of legal matters. Elmoris produces lug caps in an eco-friendly manner as a result of thermoplastic materials (TPE); the sealing compound used in manufacturing the product and its utilisation does not emit any harmful substances into the atmosphere. The firm helped the client enter a PPA for 12 years and advised on the installation of solar panels on its manufacturing plant.
Internally, the firm has implemented various environmental best practices and has also recently organised and involved its staff in a World Cleanup Day.
SORAINEN
In Lithuania, a team led by head of corporate Sergej Butov and energy co-head Asta Augutytė-Rapkevičienė at pan-Baltic firm Sorainen recently advised Taaleri SolarWind II Fund and Atsinaujinančios Energetikos Investicijos on all legal matters pertaining to their acquisition of three wind farms with a combined total capacity of 186MW. This is representative of the firm’s involvement in the expansion of renewable investments in Lithuania.
In the sustainable finance space, Tomas Kontautas and his team assisted Šiaulių Bankas, one of the largest banks in Lithuania, with the establishment of a €275m modernisation fund to renovate 600 old multi-apartment buildings. This is expected to save an estimated 50,000 tonnes of CO2 each year.
Clients benefit from the firm’s cross-disciplinary approach to green work. The firmwide ESG team is dedicated to facilitating the green transition for clients and has become a go-to in the region for renewables projects. The team is comprised of multidisciplinary lawyers across Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania who collaborate closely on ESG matters. For example, a team including lawyers across all three jurisdictions is providing legal counsel to alternative investment firm Apollo Global Management on its acquisition of leading European biomass and bioenergy producer Graanul. This was the largest M&A transaction in the Baltics in 2021.
The firm’s commitment to sustainability is not limited to client work. All four offices across the Baltic region have undergone a carbon footprint assessment and set up individual action plans based on the results.
TGS Baltic
Leading Baltic law firm TGS Baltic’s Lithuanian team stands out for its work within the sustainable finance space, with a focus on investments in the renewable energy space, particularly wind power. The firm recently launched its ESG practice to support clients with their ESG goals and obligations.
Together with the M&A and real estate and construction team, head of energy Paulius Zapolskis is currently advising Green Genius, an international renewable energy company, in the purchase of 100% of the shares in the company which has rights to develop an 85 MW wind farm in Lithuania. This deal is particularly significant as it contributes to the region’s climate change mitigation agenda and will account for around 13% of the country’s current wind power portfolio.
Another recent highlight is the team’s work advising EPSO-G on the issuance of sustainability-linked bonds. This is one of the first projects in the Baltics where the interest of the bonds is linked to compliance with sustainability requirements.
Trying to lead by example, the firm received an ISO 14001 certification, demonstrating its commitment to managing its impact on the environment. Furthermore, in collaboration with public institution and non-profit Myliu Miska (I love forest), the firm measures and neutralises CO2 emissions from its events. It also regularly participates in and initiates events related to sustainability, such as a recent seminar on labor law and ESG.
Triniti Jurex Law Firm
In Lithuania, pan-Baltic firm Triniti Jurex stands out for its work with renewable energy projects, green procurement, and environmental impact assessment procedures. It has recently also seen an increase of clients in the manufacturing industry seeking advice on sustainable packaging and sustainable solutions.
The firm’s sustainability ambassador Gintarė Ivanauskaitė, who recently graduated from the Lithuanian Sustain Academy, together with Vytautas Kalmatavičius continue leading the advice to Utilitas regarding the due diligence process of a 200MW renewable energy farm in Lithuania; the matter is considered one of the biggest wind farm purchase deals in the country. In another highlight, the firm is advising clean tech start-up Nanoenergija regarding the client’s intellectual property rights to its invention, namely vibration energy harvesting technology, enabling the green production of energy.
In June 2022 one of the firm’s key contacts, Vilija Viesunaite, organised a conference on intellectual property with a focus on sustainable packaging and green trademarks.
Under the leadership of Ivanauskaitė and following a series of internal team events and seminars to better define its sustainable goals, the firm recently published its first sustainability report, which specifies six priorities for sustainable development. The firm is currently working on calculating its CO2 footprint with external sustainability experts by preparing a greenhouse gas report that complies with the Green Gas Protocol and international standards.
WALLESS
Multi-service Lithuanian firm WALLESS assists clients with a range of matters relating to a green transition, including clean and renewable energy, environmental protection, e-mobility and sustainable finance.
The firm’s dispute resolution team is currently representing the Environment Protection Department against AB Grigeo Klaipėda, a major paper and wood company in Lithuania, in connection with a €48m claim brought against the company due to the polluting of the Curronian Spit, an area of the country that has been protected by UNESCO for several years.
In the sustainable finance space, a recent highlight was the representation of Swedbank in one of the first sustainability-linked bonds to take place in the Baltic region, which will be used to finance strategic energy projects.
The firm is also assisting Kaunas Regional Waste Management Centre, established with the aim of creating a sustainable waste management system in the Kaunas region, with various legal issues concerning waste management.
For client Milieu Consulting SRL, key individual Vaidotas Puklevičius and others handled the Lithuanian aspect of its study on the promotion of e-mobility through building policy in EEA countries and the UK; the client was awarded the preparation of the study on behalf of the European Commission.
Puklevičius was also a key advisor to the Ministry of Energy regarding the transposition of the Clean Energy Package into Lithuanian law. He regularly speaks at conferences on topics such as citizen energy communities and renewable energy communities, and making small green energy projects big.
The firm is a member of the Lithuanian Wind Power Association, the Lithuanian Solar Association, and the hydrogen platform, an institution established by the Ministry of Energy which aims to improve the country’s hydrogen policy.