Sustainability Practice Group
The Sustainability Practice Group at Paladin Law Group has been participating in the design, development, and realization of municipal sustainability plans, sustainability strategies, pollution prevention, and renewable energy projects for nearly two decades. We boast a comprehensive regulatory understanding of legal requirements related to these issues, including local, state, and federal air pollution laws and regulations, US forest service and USDA mandates, and all elements of State law relating to Climate Change, including AB 32, SB 375, and SB 811. Through projects in Europe and North America, our team members have contributed to sustainability planning processes, and renewable energy development, going beyond “greening” efforts, to take into account long term economic and social impact reduction, while integrating ecologically responsible planning processes to reduce climate change and air pollution impacts.
We have demonstrated success in regulatory innovation and developing new means of achieving higher levels of community master planning, development, and sustainability performance. In the auditing and assessing of sustainability performance of various energy and climate technologies and land use plans, we draw on decades of sustainability acumen, and the disciplines of systemic thinking, sustainable development, and sustainability management systems. The result of our work is a carefully calculated benefit to all stakeholders: the environment, society, and the economy.
The following is a partial list of our services. These services can be combined in any number of ways to fit unique business and legal needs.
- Design, development, and implementation of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and Sustainability Management Systems (SMS), including certification advice to cities and other public agencies
- Thorough reviews of environmental and health & safety compliance for municipalities and businesses for health and safety compliance, clean air and clean water act compliance, hazardous materials and hazardous waste compliance, OSHA compliance, including enforcement defense
- EMS and EHSMS system design, EMS and EHSMS development, EMS and EHSMS implementation, EMS and EHSMS auditing
- Strategic planning and compliance counseling for climate change regulation, greenhouse gas emissions, carbon accounting and management, energy efficiency and all issues related to California's AB32 and the pending national carbon trading market
- Product stewardship, product liability counseling, and strategic product planning and product compliance program design and implementation
- Design tools for sustainability supply chain management, environmentally preferable purchasing, eco-efficiency certification, auditing for compliance with green certification standards, and development of public reporting to demonstrate environmental and sustainability performance improvement
- Develop sustainability strategy for the hospitality industry, including hotels and restaurants
- Setting sustainability strategies and environmental impact reduction methods for business clusters and their municipal partners, including directly advising cities on incorporating green business goals, eco-enterprise zones, and other sustainable development strategies into their General Plan
- Extensive development of curriculum employing training on the deployment and propagation of green standards, and the development of educational resource guides, fact sheets, and other tools essential to proper implementation of green program standards
- Developing revisions to ordinances and municipal codes to support environmental performance improvement and green business standards
- Domestic and international regulations on product/environmental requirements, including ISO, WEEE, RoHS, and REACH regulatory advice and compliance
- Advice to businesses concerning the Carbon Disclosure Project, and to developers and financial institutions under the Equator Principles
- Product labeling and end of life producer responsibility
- Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR reporting, corporate non-financial reporting, green advertising, marketing and green claims compliance, "green washing" prosecution and defense, corporate communications on sustainability and green business practices, and green branding/brand protection
- Complex products liability and class action defense
- Environmental audits, GHG reduction planning, carbon accounting, carbon baseline development, carbon trading, zero net emissions,
- Defense of government and private enforcement actions
- Intellectual property protection and insurance coverage representation in a wide range of product-related industries
- Endangered species compliance
- Water rights
- Nanotechnology
- Renewable energy and energy efficiency financing and development
- Industrial retrofit
- Sustainability obligations and policy compliance in government contracts and supply chain requirements
- We are experienced in systemic thinking, systems thinking, whole systems change as these may related to our sustainable future
See our Projects page for examples of our work.
