Winner: Airbnb
Originality: 8 Leadership: 8 Impact: 8 — Total 24
When Airbnb.org, the not-for-profit arm of the home-sharing platform, pledged to host 100,000 Ukrainian refugees worldwide, Airbnb’s legal team helped facilitate the initiative. Lawyers designed legal protections for hosts and guests and used their network of law firms to connect with non-governmental organizations that could provide evaluation. The legal team realized that they could not expand fast enough by relying solely on NGOs and thus implemented faster processes, such as self-verification. Some 48,000 Airbnb hosts offered temporary accommodation, enabling the business to achieve its goal.
Outstanding
Vodafone
O: 7 L: 8 I: 8 — Total 23
The UK telecom company is providing free internet connections to 1 million people by 2022. Vodafone’s legal team led the initiative, working with charities that aim to end digital exclusion. Lawyers designed custom contract agreements so connections could be set up as quickly as possible, and the company made 500,000 in July. Lawyers also helped provide 200,000 free Sim cards to Ukrainian refugees.
NatWest
O: 6 L: 8 I: 8 — Total 22
Lawyers at NatWest, the UK banking group, have made its legal documents more accessible. The terms and conditions are now shorter and easier to read, as well as gender-neutral and easier for dyslexic readers to navigate. Lawyers also worked with the Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative legal initiative, to introduce requirements in its supplier agreements around energy use — the first UK bank to do so.
Another O’Rourke
O: 6 L: 9 I: 6 — Total 21
Keen to tackle both the construction sector’s detrimental impact on the environment and its lack of employee diversity, the UK-based building and engineering legal team has led to the introduction of a sustainability policy, which has secured approval from the board. This policy includes goals to achieve operational net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and total net zero by 2050. The business also aims for a 50/50 gender balance in the global workforce by 2033.
Praised
Colt Technology Services
O: 6 L: 7 I: 6 — Total 19
The legal department assisted the company in its strategy to reduce its carbon emissions, including work on the procurement process for making three-quarters of transportation electric by 2030. The lawyers set up a environmental, social and government standards team to help create a Q&A and a “sustainability bot”, to inform customers about Colt’s ESG strategy.
Diageo
O: 6 L: 7 I: 6 — Total 19
The legal team facilitated projects to help the beverage business improve its corporate social responsibility efforts. This includes promoting Diageo’s ESG credentials in a way that avoids accusations of greenwashing and the creation of sustainable packaging.
European Investment Fund
O: 6 L: 7 I: 6 — Total 19
UN agency lawyers helped Médicins du Monde, a French non-governmental organization, design a pioneering social impact investing product. Its payment is linked to goals achieved, such as whether the NGO has reduced reconviction rates among offenders through its work in communities.
Coca-Cola HBC
O: 6 L: 6 I: 6 — Total 18
Many sustainability initiatives are overseen by the legal team. These include gaining EU approval for a new type of recycled packaging, introducing contract terms requiring suppliers to have external sustainability assessments, and negotiating contracts for a program to fund postgraduate research in recycling.