Lawyers by education, training and through experience tend to be cautious professionals, generally favoring in corporate disclosure & reporting (for example) caution over passionor over-enthusiasm.  What if you could combine the tough and thorough approach and discipline of law professionals in the firm with the passion of the company’s sustainability efforts and reporting on same?
Rob Langert, former VP-Sustainability at McDonald’s, explores the role of legal counsel in sustainability matters.  Three lawyers who are leaders in sustainability matters are interviewed and very helpful advice and guidelines result.

• Kim Marotta, Director-Sustainability at MillerCoors, suggests The Marotta Model:  Cooperate – Collaborate – Cohesion.
• John Page, sustainability lead at Golden State Foods presents The Page Pyramid:  Risk: Minimize Not Avoid – Passion – SME on Strategic Goals.
• Bill Frerking, sustainability lead at Georgia Pacific presents The Frerking Framework:  Risk Mitigation – Advantage – Righteousness.

We find this commentary to be very helpful for our work with corporate counsel at client companies – clip this and save for your own discussions with the internal law team or outside counsel when you are preparing a corporate sustainability report. As author Rob Langert says in the Story:  “Yes, legal teams are tough, thorough and omni-present.  We need them and their discipline in the sustainability field.  It’s a sign that sustainability has arrived when the lawyers care so much!”
Are lawyers the enemy of sustainability execs?
(Monday – April 06, 2015)
Source: GreenBiz – “All they say is no,” said Dr. Temple Grandin about lawyers. Dr. Grandin is a preeminent animal welfare scientist. At a recent presentation, she proclaimed she wished she could throw all the lawyers out of the room. She explained…