Burges Salmon’s Head of Corporate Responsibility, Kirsty Green-Mann, has been nominated in the newly formed ‘ESG Initiative of the Year’ category at Law.com’s Women, Influence and Power in Law UK Awards (WIPL UK) 2023.
WIPL UK Awards is an exclusive event focused on key leadership and legal issues and how best to drive the diversity and equality agenda forward. The Awards will once again be honouring top females who have made a remarkable difference in the legal profession this past year – whether in shaping the law, achieving outstanding results for their clients, being an outstanding jurist or assisting those in need of legal services.
The ‘ESG Initiative of the Year’ award is for women who have led on a specific ESG initiative within their law firm or company during the past 12 months. Kirsty is responsible for framing and driving Burges Salmon’s responsible business agenda and contributing to the firm’s work on ESG, Net Zero and inclusive employment.
Kirsty’s approach in her role is to align ambition in terms of the firm’s strategic positioning, recognise opportunities with and for clients and to take a pragmatic approach, balancing business priorities. Primarily, she has led across the firm’s Climate Action initiatives, the key goals of which were; (i) to strongly position the firm in relation to climate, underpinning the firm’s Net Zero Legal Services, with a multi-stakeholder approach (ii) attain approval for science-based green-house-gas (GHG) reduction targets with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) and (iii) agree a Carbon Reduction Plan in accordance with Social Value Act requirements and as a pathway with which to drive tangible action.
Kirsty’s work has helped Burges Salmon attain the EcoVadis Gold Sustainability standard ranking in the top 5% of participants globally, secure the title of ‘Best law firm for eco-friendliness’ at the Legal Cheek Awards 2022, win the ‘Law Firm Award for Sustainability’ at the LexisNexis Awards 2022 and win ‘Sustainable Business of the Year’ at the Bristol Law Society Awards 2022. Kirsty is a member of Burges Salmon’s Responsible Business, Community Impact, and Environment Committees along with its Diversity and Inclusion Group. She represents the firm in a number of external forums in relation to responsible business and sustainability.
Kirsty comments: “I am proud to have been shortlisted in this category at the Women, Influence and Power in Law UK Awards 2023. The nomination cements our firm’s efforts for championing Environmental, Social and Governance practices even further. It is fantastic to see our efforts acknowledged at this stage – knowing that there was a record number of entries this year makes it particularly meaningful.”
The WIPL UK awards ceremony takes place on 8 March 2023 at the Royal Garden Hotel in London.