John Dernbach has spent much of his career thinking about sustainable development.

It means more than "being green," says Dernbach, an emeritus professor at Widener University Commonwealth Law School and the founding director of its Environmental Law and Sustainability Center. Rather, he says, sustainable development balances environmental protection, economic development and social justice.

"I'm a career environmental guy, and you can start out thinking you are going to protect the environment," Dernbach says. “But one of the first things you learn in the world of environmental protection is you're not going to get anywhere unless you can explain how your particular proposal fits into or addresses economic development and job creation. You can't do environmental protection by itself.”

Roger Martella, a past general counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency, notes there has been a positive shift in public perception of and participation in sustainable development. While past years involved "mostly talk and less action," the United States and other countries have now entered what he calls "the global sustainability era."

"We are finally seeing action and progress on improving the quality of life for people in the world when it comes to environmental consideration, climate change impacts and just general well-being," Martella says.

For most Fortune 100 companies and the U.S. military, which are focused intently on sustainable development, it's a matter of viability, adds W. Andrew Gowder Jr., a past chair of the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law.

"Businesses that do not focus on practices that make them more resilient and do not recognize the need to protect the natural world will not do well in the short term or survive in the long term," he says.

To incorporate sustainable development into their practice, lawyers should start by understanding what it means and why it matters.

"There's a tendency for people to think about this as something that is for environmental and energy lawyers only, and not for other lawyers," says Dernbach, a co-author of Sustainability Essentials: A Leadership Guide for Lawyers. "But sustainable development touches pretty much every field of law–insurance, banking, real estate, corporate law, human rights, civil rights, you name it."

Sustainable development was first defined by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The United States joined other countries in committing to sustainable development at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. They adopted the Rio Declaration, a set of 27 principles that advise how to move toward environmentally sound development.

The principles were designed to balance the needs of developing versus developed nations; address poverty and economic development; and outline the rights and responsibilities of sovereign nations to the global community. They stressed the need for peace and environmental protection.

In 2015, the United Nations synthesized these into the Sustainable Development Goals. The U.N. General Assembly committed to these 17 objectives to address global challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.

"You'll notice if you read the 17 goals that they cover everything the ABA does," says Richard Field, an attorney in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. "And I can guarantee you that some part of your practice, your life or your family is reflected in them."

Field has been active in the United Nations for many years. He is a past chair of the ABA Section of Science & Technology Law and focused his practice on financial systems and electronic commerce law and policy.

He encourages all lawyers to read the Sustainable Development Goals, which have 169 related targets. For example, Goal 16 relates to peace and justice. One of its targets is promoting the rule of law and ensuring equal access to justice.

Since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals, the ABA has participated in the United Nations' work to assess their progress. Many of its entities have advanced them through their activities and initiatives. And at the 2024 ABA Annual Meeting in August, the association officially resolved to support their implementation as part of Resolution 513.Among other tenets, the measure encourages all lawyers to learn about sustainable development and to counsel their clients on related risks and opportunities.

"Many countries around the world take this really seriously, and if you're a lawyer dealing with anybody multinational or anybody governmental, whether it's in another country or even within the U.S., they care," Field says.

After becoming better acquainted with sustainable development goals, lawyers can begin to build related expertise in fields that are important to clients and their work, Dernbach says.

If you practice construction law, for example, you can familiarize yourself with green building rating systems and be aware of state and local laws on green building standards, he adds.

"Learn the sustainability law that is relevant to what your client does, and learn the kinds of sustainability activities in which companies and individuals who are similarly situated engage in," Dernbach says.

Lawyers should know what is happening with sustainability and law internationally, adds Amy Edwards, a partner at Holland & Knight in Washington, D.C., who has practiced environmental law for more than 40 years. 

"You tend to get focused on the day-to-day aspects of your practice and don't think more broadly about what's happening around the globe," says Edwards, a past chair of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources.

This can be especially helpful when looking to add sustainability-supportive language to commercial contracts and legal agreements. Edwards recommends looking into the Chancery Lane Project, a global network of lawyers and business leaders who share model "climate-friendly" clauses for use in agreements and contracts. She says some of these clauses have been adapted for use in the United States.

"This is an easy way to look at some model documents and see if they might have an impact on your practice," Edwards says.

Lawyers who work in this space often refer to the duty of competency as one reason to become more knowledgeable about sustainable development.

At her firm, Maram Salaheldin has not only honed her expertise but also helped inform her colleagues about sustainable development. A senior attorney at Clark Hill in Washington, D.C., she assists U.S. and multinational clients with environmental, health, safety and sustainability issues. She co-leads the firm's environmental, social and governance and sustainability practice.

"Sustainable development work is just going to continue, and it's very pervasive," Salaheldin says. "We need a lot of hands to do it. We don't just have a duty of our own competency, but to also make sure others around us are able and capable to do the work."

Salaheldin co-chairs the Environmental, Social, Governance and Sustainability Committee in the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. She helped Dernbach draft Resolution 513, which additionally calls on the association to provide lawyers with educational materials and tools and training programs to help lawyers incorporate sustainable development into their practices.

One such program is an ongoing ESG & Sustainability Roundtable SEERies. It's free and offers attendees the chance to network with and learn from other practitioners in different sectors, industries and jurisdictions, including nonlawyer experts in the field.

"This is really another one of those opportunities for us to give back and to create resources for folks that can't access them otherwise," Salaheldin says.

Martella, after serving as general counsel of the EPA, joined General Electric to help drive the company's approach to sustainability in 2017. He now serves as executive vice president and chief corporate officer at GE Vernova, a global energy company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that works to create a sustainable electric power system.

Martella believes lawyers play a vital role in implementing sustainable development.

"The private sector is seen as being part of the solution, not so much just part of the problem," he says. “As the private sector steps up to lead in the space, it benefits from the role of the counselor in terms of being successful in transactions, partnerships and initiatives.”

As key advisers to companies, general counsel can help promote relationships that foster innovation and technology deployment, Martella says. They also bring valuable insight into regulatory issues as the number of laws and reporting requirements related to sustainable development grows.

"Lawyers increasingly are advising on very complex regimes around the world and on how to ensure compliance and state-of-the-art performance because as companies engage more in the space, they want to make sure they're doing so in a way that is legally beyond reproach," Martella says.

A company's stakeholders, customers and supply chain have a vested interest in sustainable development, says Jonathan Nwagbaraocha, who serves as corporate counsel for environmental sustainability at Cisco Systems. To best counsel clients or potential clients, he recommends researching how they already engage in the practice.

"You can do that by reviewing their corporate social responsibility reports, sustainability reports and any other external report or data," says Nwagbaraocha, the current chair of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources, who is based in Rochester, New York. "It will give you a sense of what they're doing, and that will help you advise them on where they need to go."

It could also avoid expensive litigation. Salaheldin says lawyers should help their clients avoid "greenwashing," or making false or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a product or practice. Recent years have brought a surge in class action lawsuits targeting companies for greenwashing.

"In some cases, it is weighing the legal risk for the business if they're not able to adequately substantiate certain claims or do the work in time to be able to establish a program the right way," Salaheldin says. "You might need to counsel them to pause or to restructure or rethink their plans."
 

Like Nwagbaraocha, Gowder suggests all lawyers–not just those with large corporate clients–understand their clients' sustainability policies and strategic plans.

For the past 30 years, Gowder has focused his practice on land use, property, land conservation and historic preservation. A founding partner of Austen & Gowder in Charleston, South Carolina, he says nearly all his clients are involved in sustainable development in some way.

Solo and small-firm lawyers likely will be representing small businesses; entrepreneurs; and state, local or tribal governments, Gowder says. There may be specific environmental and land issues affecting these clients as well as laws and regulations that can be used to protect them.

There could be business opportunities. For example, in the green energy or environmental remediation and restoration fields, lawyers can identify government incentives or credits available to clients.

Emergency management and resiliency issues also often play out at the regional and local levels.

"Find out how to advise and advocate for your clients in responding to climate disaster events and planning resilience," Gowder says. “How should your client prepare their businesses, locations and facilities to make them less vulnerable to climate extremes, storms, flooding, fire, heat, drought?”

Lawyers in government and academia have critical roles in developing laws and regulations that serve as the framework for sustainable development, Gowder says. They should stay apprised of scientific developments and work to interpret and include them in guidance to regulators and elected officials.

In any practice setting, an overarching goal is to help clients understand the economic, social and environmental risks and opportunities associated with any project, Dernbach says.

For instance, people may think solar energy development is good for the environment and always acceptable from a sustainability perspective. But neighbors may have valid concerns about its aesthetics and impact on agriculture.

"Encourage your client to work with the community in developing the proposal to limit issues," Dernbach says. "This reduces legal risk, risk of litigation, risk of getting your permits denied ... and a lot of this simply makes the proposal more attractive."

But lawyers also should meet their clients "where they are," Salaheldin contends. While lawyers have professional and ethical responsibilities to show clients the whole picture, she says it sometimes leads to uncomfortable conversations.

"Ultimately, a lot of this will be a business decision," she says. “And that's the situation we are often in as outside counsel. But if you're not informing your clients of potential pitfalls or potential opportunities, you may be missing out on the full scope of your role with that organization.”

Sustainability also involves human rights. Gender equality, access to health care and quality education, and ending poverty and hunger are all part of the U.N.'s 17 goals. On both personal and professional levels, these are issues lawyers have a stake in.

As thought leaders and professionals, lawyers have a duty to advance and advocate for a body of knowledge and actions that lead to a more just world, Gowder says.

"Human development practices that improve and restore the natural world instead of degrading it directly impact environmental justice [and provide] quality of life for all, including those traditionally disadvantaged," he says.

Environmental policies that ignore inequities within minority and low-income communities only further injustice, says Carlton Waterhouse, the director of the Environmental and Climate Justice Center at Howard University School of Law.

"My argument is that if it's sustainable, it's not just sustainable ecologically and economically, it's sustainable socially," Waterhouse says.

He praises New Jersey for passing a groundbreaking law that requires regulators to reject permits for new power plants or other facilities that disproportionately impact communities that already have faced high levels of pollution. He expanded on this in the fall 2024 issue of the George Washington Journal of Energy and Environmental Law.

Waterhouse encourages lawyers to consider the "human dimension" of everything they do. For example, you shouldn't just think about energy efficiency when advising on new building construction. You should evaluate how the building impacts local residents and whether it meets or obstructs their needs. You should also understand how workers will be affected and what opportunities could be created for them.

"So it's looking at the labor dimension, looking at the property use dimension, looking at the dimension of community relationships and development," Waterhouse says. "Those are present almost anyplace we have some kind of project going on." 

While much of sustainable development relies on large-scale changes, lawyers also can make meaningful changes on an individual level.

They can reduce their carbon footprint by minimizing air travel and conducting business remotely, says Michael Gerrard, the founder and faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. If they must fly, he suggests choosing economy over business or first class, which contribute to a larger share of the flight's emissions.

Lawyers can insist their offices are heated and cooled in environmentally friendly ways and install and use appliances that are more energy-efficient, Gerrard says. As a starting point, he recommends looking at the Pennsylvania Bar Association's environmental sustainability guidelines.

Gerrard encourages lawyers to take on clients whose work supports sustainable development. Regardless of whether that's an option, he says lawyers can engage in environmental pro bono work.

He and Dernbach both are involved in Model Laws for Deep Decarbonization, a project to draft mostly state and local laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative, which provides pro bono representation to community groups and organizations that have proposed wind and solar projects, is another example.

Additionally, lawyers can help environmental groups obtain tax exemptions and deal with other legal issues or join the boards of local environmental organizations, adds Gerrard, a past chair of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources.

"All lawyers have a stake in the present and future of the planet," Gerrard says. “It should be a matter of universal concern.”

Young people–and in particular, new and upcoming lawyers–are calling on their employers to invest in sustainable development. Law Students for Climate Accountability is a national organization that aims to transform the legal industry's role in the climate crisis. It publishes an annual "law firm climate change scorecard" that ranks top law firms by how much fossil fuels work they engaged in over a five-year period.

Tenney Kapellusch, a 3L at Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, notices her peers are more aware of sustainable development and want to see their commitment to the practice matched by law firms and other legal employers.

"They want to bring their values with them and make places aware of what sustainable development is and how it affects everyone," says Kapellusch, the co-chair of the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resources' Environmental Law Society Network, which connects and provides resources to environmental law students across the United States.

"And it actually does affect everyone," Kapellusch adds. "That's becoming a more widespread opinion, and I think it's helping push more consciousness in this area."

Lawyers must be at the center of sustainable development, Dernbach reiterates. As the practice grows, it will continue to require new and modified laws and more lawyers who can help clients comprehend and comply with them.

"Making development sustainable–truly sustainable–is really an important challenge and an important opportunity," he says.