Canadian Lawyer InHouse

38 www.canadianlawyermag.com/inhouse FEATURE "It was a really interesting exercise to lead and was really only the beginning of more integration of climate-related considerations into all different parts of our business," says Torrance. He championed an initiative to set a target for sustainable finance within the bank by creating a new category of sustainable financial products including green bonds and ESG integrations in asset management. In addition, BMO recently launched a podcast series on sustainability, in which Torrance is one of the hosts. In 2019, BMO announced a renewed pur- pose commitment to "boldly grow the good in business and life," and this is something that Torrance is taking very seriously. The commit- ment includes pushing $400 billion into sus- tainable finance by 2025 to align sustainability goals with the overall business strategy. "If you ignore a very important phenom- enon like sustainability, you're doing your organization a disservice. Merging your legal mind with a business advisory role is some- thing that every lawyer should be striving to achieve," says Torrance. Also leading the way in sustainability from the legal department is Jennifer Suess, RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust's senior vice president, general counsel and BY PLACING a focus on sustainability and environmental, social and governance efforts, many organizations are showing an aware- ness of an emerging imperative, while also creating new business opportunities. Although such matters were historically not considered to have any relationship to legal, more and more in-house counsel are taking the lead in managing sustainability efforts for their businesses. "There used to be a thinking that sus- tainability was a law-free zone because it's voluntary, but this is patently false," says Michael Torrance, chief sustainability officer and associate general counsel at BMO Financial Group. "Increasingly, there is an inter-relationship between sustainability and legal expectations. I think the skills that legal counsel have in being strategic advisors on opportunities and risk management and having an eye to the reputation of a compa- ny are very valuable in navigating a strong sustainability program." Under his lead, BMO's legal department has implemented initiatives to address climate change, following recommendations issued by the Financial Stability Board's task force on cli- mate-related financial disclosures. This includ- ed integrating climate change into everything from strategy to risk management and doing an in-depth analysis into how climate risks could materialize within a business. "At the end of the day, those companies that don't place sustainability at the forefront of strategic thinking will suffer for not doing so." Kate Chisholm, Capital Power In-house counsel lead ESG efforts Legal departments are increasingly spearheading sustainability and environmental, social and governance responsibilities

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