Considering the overwhelming scientific evidence for the contribution of anthropogenic emissions to climate change, barristers must play their part in reducing their carbon footprint and helping the UK achieve its net zero commitment by 2050.

Understanding and agreeing that action is needed is important, but without the right resources to support the implementation of initiatives to reduce emissions, understanding will not materialise into impact. More resources are needed to guide barristers on how to transition from being climate change sympathisers into net zero contributors, helping to reduce the emissions of the profession.

The Bar Council Sustainability Network has created some excellent resources to support chambers to assess and report their carbon footprint (see the Bar Council Sustainability Network). However, only individual barristers have access to the data required to provide those who instruct them with a full breakdown of the Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions arising from their practice, including home utilities and the use of personal vehicles.

With this in mind, guidance which synthesises best practice with the practical realities of legal practice at the Bar is needed, to help barristers assess, report, offset and provide assurance around their personal carbon footprint. The Carbon Footprint Guidance for Barristers in England and Wales is the product of my endeavour to translate the available best practice into practical guidance and a set of recommendations to help barristers assess, report, reduce, offset, and provide assurance around their carbon footprint.

The guidance is aimed at self-employed barristers, but many parts will readily translate to those employed by other entities.  

What made you write the guidance?

My journey into producing this guidance started with the curious question: How big is a barrister’s carbon footprint? That led to an idea to assess and track the carbon footprint of my pupillage, something which was a natural progression, having spent the two years before pupillage at the forefront of the rapidly developing standards landscape for net zero and sustainability issues at the British Standards Institution.

Having looked for an applicable methodology to follow, it became apparent that there was a gap which much needed filling. This guidance fills that gap.

There were also elements of the process of calculating a barrister’s carbon footprint which were not straightforward. The voluntary carbon offset market is difficult to navigate and largely inaccessible to sole traders. The relevant data sources were obscure and difficult for someone outside the sustainability field. As with all disciplines, technical jargon was also a barrier.

The guidance document has overcome those challenges and provides what a barrister needs to assess, report, and reduce their carbon footprint.

How long does it take to assess your carbon footprint?

Most barristers should be able to assess, report, and offset their carbon footprint by spending approximately one day per year collating and presenting the necessary information. I have included an example report within the guidance for your reference. The most time-consuming task is keeping a log of your travel arrangements.

What are your top tips for a barrister to reduce their carbon footprint?

I give six main tips in the guidance, and then a longer list of steps barristers can take. The six main tips are: (1) Walk/cycle more, (2) Use public transport, reduce your use of the car, (3) Move your home electricity and gas supply to renewable sources, (4) Get up earlier to reduce overnight stays, (5) Adopt a paperless practise, (6) Buy preloved clothing and second-hand electronics.

Similarly, some of the tips apply to chambers, too, including moving utilities to renewable tariffs, moving to vegetarian-only food suppliers, transitioning to LED and other forms of low-consumption lighting, and taking into account carbon emissions when planning conferences and events.

What is the biggest misconception about reducing your emissions?

The pushback I hear from some barristers is that taking action to reduce their emissions involves sacrificing things you like and enjoy.

What I say to those barristers is to focus on the big emission sources. Most of a barrister’s carbon footprint is comprised of their travel emissions and their utility consumption at home and in chambers. Switching to 100% renewable gas and electricity at home and in chambers will reduce most barrister’s carbon footprints by about 15%. Even if you have to pay £10 per month more for the benefit, this is unlikely to break the bank for most barristers and involves minimal sacrifice.

If you like grabbing a taxi to court, there are plenty of electric taxis around which can half your emissions for a single journey. Taking public transport often means you can work whilst travelling, reducing the amount you have to do when you get home had you used your car.

Make the easy changes first before you worry about the emissions from your coffee/wine consumption or your hotel stays.

Can a barrister be carbon neutral?

Being carbon neutral means that you have reasonably minimised your emissions and then offset that which you have emitted. The focus of this year’s COP29 conference was improving investment in the voluntary carbon marketplace, where buyers purchase credits to offset their footprint.

Whilst offsetting is very important, and I would encourage every barrister to offset their footprint, most reforestation projects in the UK are too young to be producing carbon credits. Instead, they are issuing what are effectively promissory notes for emissions the projects which will be removing emissions in about a decade or so. A reforestation project produces most of their carbon units between years 25 and 45 and the UK voluntary carbon market is less than 15 years old.

You can purchase credits from overseas which are already producing carbon units for sale, in which case a barrister could accurately be described as having a carbon-neutral practice.

How much does offsetting your carbon footprint cost?

Offsetting your footprint is likely to cost most barristers approximately £300-£600 per year. There are details in the guidance about where you can purchase carbon credits from and an explanation to help you understand the differences between offset offerings.

What impact would you like the guidance to have?    

My hope is that the guidance has made assessing, reporting, and offsetting your carbon footprint a sufficiently simple and achievable task for any barrister to undertake, and we will see far more barristers take action to reduce and offset their carbon footprint in the years to come.

I would like to see more barristers publish their carbon footprint data on their professional profiles, take steps to reduce their footprint, and offset the emissions produced by their practice. There are easy and simple steps that barristers and chambers can take now to reduce their carbon footprint.

The Bar has a wealth of sustainability talent which yet to be fully harnessed to lead profession-wide initiatives to reduce emissions and promote offsetting, both inside and outside the profession. Most of all, I hope that the guidance makes assessing, reducing, and offsetting your carbon footprint accessible and achievable for more barristers to take action on their emissions.