Can you talk about you or your company’s efforts relating to renewability, sustainability or other environmentally- friendly activities?

The changing climate and environment have brought the challenges of the future into sharper focus, including the need for businesses to incorporate sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) goals into their strategies and operations. This is not only for the longer-term success and profitability of the organisation, but also the right thing to do for us and our future generations. Thus, it is no wonder that more and more boards and management teams are making sustainable business practices a priority.

At WS Audiology, sustainability and ESG are anchored in our organisation’s strategy and culture. We have clear goals to reduce our environmental impact and have adapted our business operations to achieve these targets. These include our science-based carbon emission reduction targets that aim to reduce scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% and reach 100% renewable electricity by 2025 in line with the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping the global temperature increase under 1.5°C. Our stores are also refitted with state-of-the art LED lighting and controls that automatically turn off lights to help reduce the energy needed to run each center. We have an established circularity program that aims to keep materials in the usage phase for as long as possible, reduce the extraction of natural resources, and reduce the generated wastes. Our circular business model involves designing our products to be durable, resilient and repairable.

We also recognize that sustainability and ESG go beyond the environmental aspect. Privacy and ethics are also critical elements and these topics are driven heavily by our legal team. Holding both the privacy and compliance portfolios for Asia Pacific, I have been actively involved in championing these topics with the local leadership teams and this starts from building awareness of the importance of ethical business practices and responsible data management. We developed a WSA Code of Conduct, clear policies and trainings for employees to understand the principles and how to apply these principles in their daily business conduct. We take extra effort to simplify our content and incorporate local examples and language to ensure that it is well understood by employees. We also engage with our Procurement department to extend our code of conduct to suppliers so that we can hold them to the same higher standards as ourselves.

Why are in-house lawyers well-placed to drive change in their organisations?

I believe that lawyers have a responsibility to balance advancing enterprise objectives with corporate governance and business integrity. And we are perfectly positioned to drive change within our organisations due to our knowledge of the complex legal, regulatory and compliance landscape coupled with an intimate understanding of our business’ challenges. To be effective, it is important for in-house lawyers to build strong rapport with the business leaders and become a trusted advisor participating in strategic discussions to align and integrate sustainability efforts into the organisation’s overall strategy, goals and objectives. Once we are able to obtain strong management buy-in, we will then be better able to drive sustainability initiatives throughout the organisation from the top down and even take the lead in some of the topics to be involved in conceptualization, implementation, training and reporting process.