By Siddharth Shekhar Yadav and Alexis McGivern.
How can client leadership across professional services help unlock credible net-zero progress?
This question is at the heart of our upcoming workshop at the University of Oxford on 16 March 2026.
As organisations seek to strengthen the credibility of their net-zero strategies, attention is increasingly turning to the influence of professional services providers (PSPs) on real-economy emissions.
For law firms, ad agencies, consultancies and other PSPs, climate impact extends well beyond office emissions and business travel. It sits in the advice given, contracts structured, and the strategies shaped. These are serviced emissions: the emissions influenced through client work. We are already seeing PSPs work to measure and manage these emissions. And increasingly, climate-leading organisations are asking themselves: “If we have a net-zero target, how can we partner with firms whose broader work supports that ambition?”
In this context, the Oxford Net Zero Serviced Emissions Hub will convene its second Client Workshop on Serviced Emissions on 16 March 2026, bringing together clients including leaders from sustainability, procurement and supplier engagement to explore practical pathways for action.
Serviced Emissions Hub
Hosted by Oxford Net Zero at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford, the Serviced Emissions Hub is a research and engagement initiative focused on advancing credible, practitioner-led approaches to tracking and reducing ‘serviced emissions’, the emissions influenced by the expertise and services that PSPs provide to their clients. This ‘beyond operational’ lens on PSPs’ emissions is emerging as a critical issue for the transition to a just and sustainable net zero future.
The Hub advances practitioner-led approaches to understand and address emissions influenced by professional services. We do this through three complementary strands:
- Strengthening standards: Advocating for clearer integration of serviced emissions in global net-zero frameworks.
- Client engagement: Empowering organisations to align procurement and partnership practices with climate commitments.
- Implementation Working Groups: Partnering across sectors to put the Race to Zero-Oxford Net Zero 2024 Catalysing Climate Action Report principles for PSPs into action. This work builds on existing experience and lessons from implementation in the advertising and PR sector, and is being further iterated by a growing network of PSPs through our partners Purpose Disruptors, Creatives for Climate, Exponential Roadmap Initiative and the Legal Charter 1.5.
Why does this matter now? Because expectations around influence, accountability and climate integrity are shifting rapidly.
The upcoming client workshop on 16 March 2026 builds on the Hub’s first client workshop, held on 19 January 2026 in London, which convened climate-ambitious organisations for a discussion on influence, accountability and transition. That discussion marked an important step in identifying how clients can play a role in aligning advisory relationships with climate goals. The January workshop created a safe space for candid discussion under the Chatham House Rule, enabling participants to share experiences, concerns and emerging practices. While organisations are at different stages of maturity in this area, the discussion highlighted a strong appetite for constructive engagement and collective learning. Across the discussion, a set of recurring themes signalled both the scale of the challenge and the opportunity for leadership.
Clients’ procurement policies can be powerful levers
Procurement processes, contractual clauses, and requests for proposals can encourage service providers to strengthen their climate practices, such as measuring and reporting on their serviced emissions or pledging not to work with fossil fuel clients, as per the Clean Creatives Pledge, which a growing number of ad and PR agencies have signed. When aligned with broader organisational priorities, these tools can help embed accountability into long-term business relationships and support more consistent approaches across suppliers.
Some clients are already translating these expectations into practice. For example, Seventh Generation demonstrated leadership by partnering with Clean Creatives and Pure Strategies to develop internal tools and decision frameworks to assess the climate alignment of its creative partners (see their case study here). Presenters also highlighted Brief for Better, led by Creatives for Climate, which connects brands with agencies that are committed to climate action and free from fossil fuel interests.
Internal alignment
The discussion also highlighted the importance of internal alignment. Participants noted that progress on serviced emissions requires moving beyond sustainability teams alone. In practice, sustainability, procurement, marketing, and public affairs functions often operate with different priorities. Strengthening collaboration across teams is critical. In the Seventh Generation case referenced above, progress was enabled through collaboration between marketing and sustainability teams, who jointly implemented a survey to assess the climate alignment of key creative partners. The upcoming workshop will build on this insight by exploring what it would take to achieve stronger alignment across sustainability, procurement, and public affairs teams, and how organisations can translate shared ambition into coordinated action.
Why do standards matter?
The role of standards emerged repeatedly in the discussion. Participants noted that embedding serviced emissions within frameworks such as the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the forthcoming Net Zero Standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) would make it significantly easier for clients to move from goodwill to action, by creating a clear and enabling environment for consistency, accountability and compliance. As standards evolve, they can provide the shared reference points that help organisations act with greater confidence and comparability.
Collaboration amplifies impact
The discussion also highlighted the benefits of collective approaches from clients. Working collaboratively was seen as a way to increase influence, share learning, reduce risk and accelerate progress. By aligning expectations and pooling resources, organisations can achieve greater impact than through isolated action. This can also reduce duplication of effort, particularly where organisations share common suppliers. In particular, shared expectations among clients working with common suppliers were seen as a way to create clearer and more consistent market signals. Collaboration was also seen as a way to strengthen networks and amplify impact over time.
Looking ahead
The January workshop demonstrated both the complexity of serviced emissions and the growing appetite among organisations to engage constructively on the issue. Since then, the Serviced Emissions Hub has continued to work with partners to advance this agenda further. The upcoming workshop will build on these early insights by welcoming a wider group of participants and focusing on practical tools, organisational alignment and pathways for implementation. The session will combine sector perspectives, a “Standards Masterclass” and group discussions to explore how contractual, procurement and supplier-engagement mechanisms can be used more effectively to drive progress. As standards evolve and scrutiny of professional services continues to grow, 2025–2026 represents a pivotal period for shaping credible approaches to influence and accountability. Client leadership will play a defining role in shaping what comes next.
Join the conversation: Upcoming Client Workshop on Serviced Emissions
Date: Monday, 16 March 2026
Time: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM (followed by lunch)
Venue: University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment
This workshop is intended for procurement, sustainability and supplier engagement professionals shaping how their companies work with professional service providers.
Photo by Robert Stump on Unsplash
