Corporate Sustainability and ESG

We provide tools and best practices for a strong competition compliance framework within organisations, for instance, by ensuring that sustainability initiatives and agreements between competitors comply with competition laws and green claims regulations. We can also help you identify and argue sustainability factors in merger control procedures and advise on state aid issues related to climate, environmental protection, and energy.

We can guide you in all kinds of compliance issues, such as reporting channels, internal investigations, antitrust, privacy, corruption and bribery, sanctions and expert control, market abuse, and corporate governance. We provide insight into best practices, common challenges, legislative changes, and new developments and trends.

With a focus on dispute prevention and dispute resolution, we can advise you in relation to dispute resolution clauses in new types of contracts and assist in investigating ESG-related issues, such as internal governance, environmental, or social norms. If ESG-related questions result in litigation before administrative or civil courts, our team will be there to assist you in setting a strategy for the case that takes into account both the legal and reputational risks, as well as litigating the case.

Our team can assist you in complying with legislation and fulfilling requirements regarding equality and diversity at the workplace, physical and psychological health and safety, and various employment conditions (for instance, work environment, working hours, and remuneration). This includes practical solutions for formulating your values, setting sustainability targets, implementing practices, and drafting policies.

Our team has specialist expertise on all aspects of sustainable lending, including green loans, green bonds, sustainability-linked loans and bonds, and investments related to climate change. We advise sponsors, investors, corporates, and financial institutions alike.

Our team provides advice relating to legal and regulatory ESG trends and developments in Finland and the EU. We can provide clarity on sustainable finance-related legislation and ESG disclosures (including matters under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and the Taxonomy Regulation) in connection with fund formation, provision of investment services, and ongoing reporting and disclosure requirements applicable to financial market participants.

We help ensure that ESG requirements are incorporated into your contractual chains in IT and technology law-related matters. Our services in this area include drafting and reviewing agreements with your suppliers and subcontractors and providing tailored training. We can assist you with questions regarding the processing of employees’ diversity, equity, and inclusion data and use of green claims in marketing, among other things.

We can advise you on corporate governance issues, securities market compliance, disclosure requirements, contract negotiation, corporate policies, and risk management. We keep you informed and provide training on regulatory developments, including those in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). We provide advice on the responsibilities and due care of the board of directors and senior management, conduct transactional due diligence reviews, and assist with IPO and fund formation due diligence.

Our team can assist you in compliance analysis and legal assessments regarding requirements, scoring criteria, and exclusion grounds. If needed, we also assist in drafting ways to mitigate existing exclusion criteria. This involves concrete solutions for the so-called self-cleaning and improvement of functions to avoid exclusion from tendering competitions in the future.

We can support you in ESG matters related to industrial, energy, and green investment projects, including questions concerning environmental liabilities, permitting, and certifications, EU taxonomy, and management of ESG within supply chains and contractual networks. In real estate and construction matters, we can help with questions concerning the energy efficiency and carbon footprint of buildings and different certification matters (such as EPC, BREEAM). We are well-versed in regulatory investigations, advisory, commenting on technical ESG/EDD reports from a legal perspective, and overall assessment of managing and flowing down ESG responsibilities across the supply chain.

We can help you navigate the emerging changes to the tax transparency, risk management, and governance landscape. Our assignments typically involve regulatory investigations and advisory for identifying responsible tax principles, tax incentives, and risks relating to our clients’ businesses. We take into account good tax governance and other ESG aspects. In addition, we regularly seek advance confirmations on the tax treatment of new business models from the Finnish Tax Administration. With our extensive experience, we can also help you align your tax strategy with a broader corporate and risk management strategy.