IJGlobal’s independent panel of judges chose Pinheiro Neto Advogados as the winner of the LatAm legal advisory award with one saying the firm “stands out as a market leader on the ESG front”.

Another of the IJGlobal ESG Awards 2024 judges added: “Pinheiro Neto has a resounding focus on key areas where many are only just commencing measurement and impact in natural capital.”

Pinheiro Neto was the first Brazilian law firm to offset its entire carbon footprint, achieving Net Zero status in 2007.

It launched an internal ESG strategy, with the management and continuous improvement of greenhouse gas emissions generated by the firm’s activities, as well as the compensation of annual emissions through restoration of native forests in degraded areas of the Atlantic Forest biome, in a process of economic, social and environmental valorisation of small rural producers by Associação de Preservação do Meio Ambiente e da Vida (Apremavi), a non-profit organisation incorporated as a civil society of public interest (OSCIP).

The submission states: “Our investment resulted in the forest restoration of more than 80 hectares through planting, maintenance and monitoring of more than 127,000 native trees.

“Through the longevity and coherence of this initiative, it was possible to build the main research and environmental education centre in native forests of the Atlantic Forest in the south of the country, a global reference.”

The law firm has deep experience on the ESG front having hired consulting and accountability firm EQAO to update its carbon strategy. When it first started, more than 15 years ago, the most progressive initiative was to reforest native areas. However, now there are other more up-to-date approaches.

EQAO updated the firm’s carbon evaluation, bringing advanced methodology to calculate its carbon emission, the GHG protocol. It is now reducing emissions and diversifying carbon compensation.

The submission adds: “One of the main initiatives is to allocate the headquarters’ growth into a new sustainable building, in addition to our traditional internal initiatives. In addition to the Sustainable PNA Project, which was first designed to encourage our staff to reflect about the use of natural resources, from conscious consumption to proper waste disposal.

“The firm promotes internal awareness campaigns and establishes continuous eco-friendly initiatives, such as selective garbage collection, recycling of coffee capsules, and disposal of contaminating products (such as batteries), electronic waste and furniture (reverse logistics).

“Regarding the carbon compensation, the firm will keep the native areas that it is already responsible for, and from now on, it will also invest in other compensation methods, through carbon credits acquisition.”

Among the many examples of Pinheiro Neto’s involvement in ESG, it cites being involved in the first certified carbon credit project in Brazil under new methodology.

Pinheiro Neto advised MyCarbon on legal matters for the structuring of its Renew Programme that aims to be the first certified carbon credits project in Brazil under the Methodology for Improved Agricultural Land Management by Verra, a non-profit organisation that operates standards in environmental and social markets.

This innovative programme will generate carbon credits from the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the removal of soil organic carbon due to improved agricultural land management within livestock-raising farms. It impacts the entire supply chain of beef production.

MyCarbon specialises in carbon footprint reduction, offering solutions and tools for businesses to achieve sustainability goals. It is part of Minerva Foods, one of LatAm’s largest beef exporters.