Souto Correa’s ESG area handles a wide range of matters involving legal issues related to ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) criteria. To this end, we have gathered a team of experts with solid knowledge in the areas of environmental, labor, corporate, corporate governance, contracts, contractors, compliance, administrative and regulatory, tax, consumer law, data protection, intellectual property and capital markets.

Our services include mapping ESG risks and non-compliance (guiding companies, investors and financial institutions through the process of integrating ESG criteria into their internal policies), counseling as to drafting policies, implementing strategies and managing risks to meet ESG standards, in addition to identifying, analyzing, classifying, treating and monitoring risks to create control mechanisms and response actions to prevent negative impacts to the company.

Having a comprehensive scope of action, our practice also includes drafting contract provisions against ESG criteria, and due diligence aimed at social, environmental and governance aspects (whether for risk assessment in asset acquisitions or for building legal relationships for contracting services and acquiring products, considering the production chain as a whole).

Other services we provide:

• Consultancy and audits for compliance with environmental legislation, particularly on topics such as permits and compliance with environmental requirements, waste and wastewater management, circular economy and reverse logistics, atmospheric emissions, management of environmental liabilities, and risk prevention and management;
• Consultancy in developing projects involving the carbon market and in matters related to climate change and structuring products within the energy efficiency market;
• Legal counselling in the operationalization of projects for the adoption of sustainable practices from an environmental perspective, further to legal obligations;
• Environmental, social and governance risk assessment for financial institutions to support a credit concession analysis;
• Along with a technical team, carry out environmental impact studies in project structuring and licensing, including social aspects and impact on communities;
• Legal counselling in designing clean energy generation projects and energy autoproduction  from clean sources;
• Participation in the process of drafting standards;
• Development of integrity programs as a condition for participation in public tenders;
• Alignment of corporate practices with the administrative accountability system of the Anticorruption Act (No. 12,846/2013) and the Administrative Misconduct Act (8,429/1992);
• Legal counseling on drafting, reviewing and implementing best practices in the prevention of anticompetitive conduct and competition risks, compliance issues in general and non-regulated aspects;
• Verification of client’s compliance with the Statutory Tendering Procedure Act (No. 13,303/2016) and the Framework of Regulatory Agencies (No. 13,448/2019);
• Legal counseling on issuing green, social and sustainable bonds (green bonds) and structuring financing, vehicles or investment funds with positive impact or impact on ESG;
• Establishment of internal committees inside companies for reviewing social issues related to ESG and monitoring practices;
• Review of labor compliance practices (hotline channel), to avoid or mitigate moral and sexual harassment, corruption, excessive working hours and infringement of labor rules;
• Drafting of internal policies, guidelines, and action plans for minority inclusion, gender equality, talent attraction and retention, right to disconnect etc.;
• Review of internal policies, job descriptions, and payment criteria.