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

International SOS is in the business of saving lives and protecting our clients’ global workforce from health and security threats.

In a post-pandemic world further disrupted by geopolitical uncertainty and economic turbulence, businesses increasingly seek help from International SOS to fulfil their duty of care to their employees and achieve the third and eighth UNGC Goals – good health and wellbeing and decent work and economic growth respectively.

Our ESG strategy is “From Risk to Resilience”. Entrusted by our clients, International SOS is committed to embedding and prioritising ESG in all our activities and operations. This was implemented through a materiality risk assessment that prioritised the economic, environmental and social topics that mattered most to our key industry stakeholders and materially impacted our business. This process identified 22 issues, some of which were prioritised:

Environmental – waste and materials, water management, energy and emissions, and travel,

Social – working conditions and engagement, career and development, diversity and equity, health, safety and wellbeing, education and development and human rights.

Governance – policies, targets and standards, reporting and governance structure

To measure progress, International SOS embarked on the EcoVadis certification process, and is committed to doing better every year, progressing from the Bronze EcoVadis Sustainability Rating in 2021 to Silver in 2022.

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

It is always good to have a lawyer at the table, isn’t it?

ESG is rapidly evolving, and so are the expectations of investors, clients and employees. In-house lawyers have the advantage of understanding thoroughly understanding their organisation and can help them navigate complex and overlapping regulations.

It can be difficult to truly measure a company’s track record and accomplishments in terms of their environmentally friendly behaviour. What do you think has, until now, been mostly missed when discussing how green a company is?

Considering how “green” a company is usually involves looking at the final product – such as an electric vehicle or a reusable tote bag, or an outcome – such as an award or obtaining a green loan. I think the difficulty lies in tracing the provenance of the supply chain and determining whether the activity of creating a green product or outcome resulted in more environmental damage.