Team size: 4 people, 2 lawyers, one in México and one in Colombia, and two paralegals (who are the best)

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

The company I work for has different lines of business, and in each one of them we aim to incorporate more eco-friendly materials into the products. An example is Propylene Glycol-REN Industrial Grade, where bio-circular feedstocks are included in the product. This way we also think about bio-circular technologies with 50% bio-based content. Legal has been involved in contracts with other companies with whom we collaborate in the development of more sustainable products.

We also work strongly in partnership with ESH to obtain and maintain all of our environmental permits. We are actively working on using less water and having strategies for the future to have enough water in these new times of draught.

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

I think Legal is a function of respect and people in the company will follow their lead. The way Legal behaves in the organisation shows the rest of the company how to behave. If Legal follows the rules and invites the rest to do so, they will see congruence in their leaders. This means that if Legal is interested in, and puts care and time into dealing with, environmental and sustainability topics (like we do in our company), the rest of the organisation will also be interested in these matters. My organisation is a pillar for being the most sustainable chemicals company, and we all put a lot of effort and time into finding sustainable solutions. In this specific case, my background as an environmental lawyer has given me an opportunity to work closely with and understand the environmental topics and challenges that we face every day. It is always important to show the teams that doing things right is the best way to do things, as Legal is always in the center of attention.

In Legal, we help out with obtaining and maintaining permits. We are involved in discussions on renovations of permits, and strategies to obtain new permits. Last year, we sold an adhesives plant and have been highly involved in the assignment of permits and the strategy for the new owner to obtain the new ones. We were also highly involved in a project where the use of lp gas was changed for the use of natural gas, which is less of a contaminant. In all of these cases, Legal took the lead on how and when to do things and people worked closely in achieving those goals – with sustainability in mind.