Climate Change

Our commitment to helping clients tackle climate change

As a firm we are committed to tackling climate change and, as such, we support all of our public sector clients to realise their net zero ambitions.

Just as many of our clients have done – we at Sharpe Pritchard have declared a climate emergency. We have worked flexibly with clients to support them in developing industry leading projects.

Our work includes:

Electricity Generation

Advising on licensing, regulatory requirements and business models. We have advised on multiple forms of energy generation including nuclear, solar, biomass and wind.

We have supported local and major national projects including nuclear generation and have team members experienced in working with industry codes, licences and revenue documents including the CfD (nuclear and non-nuclear) and PPAs.

On a national level we have supported HMG to subsidise wind farm manufacturers and port providers. Locally we have advised on PPA arrangements including sleeving and private wire. We have also advised on all major ancillary documents including forms of building and operations and maintenance contract.

Heat

We are one of the UK’s leading law firms in renewable heating projects. We have advised multiple local authorities as to structures, procurement, subsidy control, regulatory, property, planning, contractual and other issues.

We have drafted heat supply arrangements in a consumer and private sector context. We have advised on the UK’s first major retrofit district heating scheme as well as orthodox arrangements. We have negotiated with major contractors and developers and understand market positions. We have advised on public and private financing solutions.

Electricity Transmission

Our team has expertise in advising on major transmission developments including advising regulators on new business models such as the SPV model. We are familiar with licence and industry requirements. Our team has advised across OFTO transactions and also supported the competition proxy regime.

Electricity Supply

We have advised multiple companies on supply arrangements including supplier obligations, licence lite, white labels and other regulatory and licence requirements. We have also advised on the exemption orders relevant to private wire projects and done so in the context of EV charging. We have also advised on matters of public sector vires in this regard.

EV

We advise across the board on EV charging. Most specifically we have advised a number of local authorities including legislative compliance, vires, licensing, construction and operation and maintenance contracts, profit generation and relevant structures.

Waste and Energy from Waste

We are one of the UK’s leading waste legal practices. Click here to find out more about our specialist support

How our office is helping to tackle climate change

We have already made huge strides to achieve this.

Our office is powered by recycled energy, deliveries are by electric vehicles wherever possible and where it is necessary to print documents we offset this with a tree planting initiative, PrintReleaf.

Energy efficient
lighting with
motion sensors

Toner
cartridge
recycling

Donating unused
IT equipment to
local schools

Powering down
our computers
in the evening

Case highlights


  • We are making a commitment for a net zero office by 2025.

  • We have in place energy efficient lighting with motion sensors, programmable thermostats.

  • Powering down our computers in the evening.

  • Moving storage data to the cloud.

  • Utilising our larger fleet copiers which are set to energy saving mode and switch to sleep mode when not in use.

  • With our new print solutions we have also incorporated Printreleaf. This platform automatically converts our paper footprint into actual trees. To date we have used 82,381 standard pages which have been offset and 9 trees have been reforested.

  • The office air conditioning system is running full fresh air and recirculated air has been removed.

  • We are committed to using Fairtrade Products and are now a Fairtrade Workplace Changer.

  • We are looking into our supply chains to reduce transportation and have changed our stationery supplier as all their London vehicles are fully electric and all their packaging is recycled.

  • We are using glass bottles for our milk supplies which has reduced our one-use plastic consumption.

  • We have recycling facilities for general waste and food in the kitchen areas.

  • We recycle all our old toners and batteries.

  • Our IT equipment to include laptops, PCs’s and monitors have been donated to our Charity Partners and this initiative will continue this year and beyond.

  • We are preparing a strategy to monitor and improve our carbon footprint, details will be communicated and updated on a regular basis, detailing our journey and commitment to net zero by 2025.
Steve Gummer
Partner
Roseanne Serrelli
Partner, Head of Strategic Projects and Innovation
Rob Hann
Legal Director and Head of Local Government

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