TLT shares the business case for seeking external accreditation through SBTi for their net zero targets.
The UK has committed to achieving net zero by 2050 and every business has a role to play in making that possible. This requires businesses to understand their existing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, agree a net zero target and put a plan in place to achieve this as quickly as possible.
With sustainability at the heart of its four-year growth strategy, UK law firm TLT aims to be as ambitious as possible when it comes to sustainability and net zero. In 2021, it set out to achieve the most ambitious climate targets in the professional services industry.
This article explains why TLT took a “gold standard” approach to net zero, including seeking external validation by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), and how other businesses can learn from its successes and follow in its footsteps.
How did you decide which framework to use?
Businesses have a lot of choice when it comes to setting and achieving their climate targets. Go at it alone or work with experts? Aim for net zero by 2050 or sooner? Reduce emissions or offset them? Align with a 1.5°C warming future or 2°C? Seek external validation or not?
This is a highly specialist area and there is a whole market built around helping businesses to understand the latest climate science and what best practice looks like.
In recognition of the urgency of the climate crisis and the importance of getting this right, we decided to seek external validation by SBTi. This supports our philosophy of being as ambitious as possible (and not marking our own homework) and gives us extra credibility in the market; people can trust that our targets are aligned with the latest climate science and that they’re achievable.
SBTi is a collaboration between the CDP, United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and World Wide Fund for Nature and just over a
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