Green Guide Profile: Watson Farley & Williams LLP

Watson Farley & Williams LLP hired its first global sustainability lead, Ben Churchill, in 2021. He coordinates the firm’s sustainability strategy and plots its green roadmap for the future. The same year the firm received a silver EcoVadis rating for sustainable practice.

The firm is uniquely situated in the UK legal market to advise on the decarbonisation of the transportation sector and is at the forefront of the green transition in these typically energy intensive industries. In the aviation industry, the team is overseeing the implementation and building of the Aviation Working Group’s (AWG) carbon calculator (ACC) which will provide accurate aircraft carbon dioxide emissions data as part of the client’s wider ESG initiative.

In the maritime sector, the firm is advising Eurazeo Sustainable Maritime Infrastructure (ESMI) on the sale and leaseback of the wind farm support vessel ‘Thor’ for German shipping group Harren&Partner. This is part of ESMI’s broader objective to support the decarbonisation of the maritime industry through financing innovative sustainable technologies. The firm also supported the development of the Poseidon Principles, a global framework used to assess the climate alignment of shipping portfolios.

In the renewables space, the projects and real estate teams are assisting Vattenfall with the development of a series of offshore wind projects with 3.6GW capacity, which once complete could provide clean energy to 3.9 million UK homes.


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