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

As a global renewable energy developer, service provider, distributor and energy solutions provider, BayWa r.e. is right on the frontline in fighting global warming and protecting the environment.

Though we’ve been operating as carbon neutral since 2018, we’ve expanded our sustainability ambition beyond being ‘100% carbon compensated’ to going ‘beyond carbon’. To this end, we have various initiatives led by the company and our employees aimed at tackling a wider range of sustainability and environmental issues. These include a running a solar academy in the Philippines for local installers and students interested in renewable energy and offering solar-powered support to the Children of the Forest Foundation in Thailand (which assists children and families who have fled armed conflict, repression, and economic hardship in Myanmar).

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

An in-house lawyer will typically work within many different sectors and senior managers across the business. This provides them with a unique bird’s eye view of the company and platform that allows them to enact real and meaningful change.

Senior management are generally aware that a company’s management of risk is critical to its business and corporate reputation. Given that risk identification, and mitigation, are key parts of an in-house lawyer’s role, their advice on these topics is likely to command attention.

The role of an in-house lawyer is also evolving. Commercial stakeholders expect the legal team to be business ‘enablers’ who provide commercially actionable advice. Lawyers who are able to do this will find it easier to connect with the business teams and be involved in strategic decisions relating to change, which are made on the basis of both legal and commercial analysis.