Can you talk about you or your company’s efforts relating to renewability, sustainability or other environmentally-friendly activities?
For more than 20 years, Agilent firmly held its commitment to protecting the environment, treating people with respect, and operating with the highest levels of integrity while contributing to the community. In 2021, Agilent announced that it will achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emission by 2050. The commitment adds to limit warming of the climate to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. In Singapore, the company installed 7,000 solar panels to provide clean, renewable energy for plant operations and lighting that saved over 1900 MT of CO2 emission per year, equivalent to taking 288 cars off the road.
Why are in-house lawyers well-placed to drive change in their organizations?
In-house legal counsel function is fundamental to businesses and organisations. The value that in-house legal teams bring to drive change in an organisation is greater compared with outsourcing, such as the ability of in-house lawyers to draw on deep business insights that drive faster and more practical problem-solving. For multinational companies, in-house lawyers are involved in forming global initiatives and being a conduit for those global initiatives to take a root locally according to the local regulations through collaboration with different experts within the legal team and through partnership with different internal stakeholders.
It can be difficult to truly measure a company’s track record and accomplishments in terms of their environmentally friendly behavior. What do you think has, until now, been mostly missed when discussing how green a company is?
Company culture plays a pivotal role in helping organisations reach their net-zero goals. The journey to sustainability and transformation towards net zero requires constant thought, upkeep and iteration as part of the call for responsible scaling through culture change and technologies that prioritises the environment and people. At Agilent, the company’s strong culture in deploying advanced technologies throughout its 28 manufacturing, operations and logistical sites across the world contributes to its goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
