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 accommodate 100,000 Ukrainian refugees internationally, Airbnb’s legal team helped facilitate the initiative. The lawyers designed legal protections for hosts and guests and used their network of law firms to connect with non-governmental organisations that could provide vetting. The legal team realised they could not expand fast enough if relying solely on NGOs and so implemented faster processes, such as self-verification. Some 48,000 Airbnb hosts offered temporary accommodation, which enabled the business to achieve its goal.
Standout
Vodafone
O: 7 L: 8 I: 8 — Total 23
The UK telecoms company is giving free internet connections to 1mn people in 2022. Vodafone’s legal team led the initiative, working with charities that seek to end digital exclusion. Lawyers designed bespoke contractual agreements so that connections could be set up as quickly as possible, and the company had made 500,000 by July. The lawyers also helped to 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. Terms and conditions are now shorter and easier to read, as well as gender-neutral and easier for dyslexic readers to navigate. The lawyers also worked with the Chancery Lane Project, a collaborative legal initiative, on introducing requirements into its supplier agreements around energy use — the first UK bank to do so.
Laing O’Rourke
O: 6 L: 9 I: 6 — Total 21
Keen to tackle both the construction sector’s harmful impact on the environment and its lack of employee diversity, the legal team at the UK-based building and engineering group drove the introduction of a sustainability policy, which won 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 is also aiming for a 50/50 gender balance among global staff by 2033.
Commended
Colt Technology Services
O: 6 L: 7 I: 6 — Total 19
The legal department has helped the company in its strategy to cut its carbon emissions, including work on the procurement process for making three-quarters of transportation electric by 2030. The lawyers set up an environmental, social and governmental criteria 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 has facilitated projects to help the drinks business improve its corporate social responsibility efforts. These include the promotion of 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
The UN agency’s lawyers helped Médicins du Monde, a French non-governmental organisation, to design a pioneering social-impact investor product. Its payout is linked to goals being met, such as whether the NGO has cut reconviction rates among offenders through its work in communities.
Coca-Cola HBC
O: 6 L: 6 I: 6 — Total 18
Several sustainability initiatives have been handled by the legal team. These include gaining EU approval for a new type of recycled packaging, introducing contract terms that require suppliers to have external sustainability assessments, and negotiating the contracts for a programme to fund postgraduate research on recycling.
