Climate work is all we do.
The world is changing. You need a law firm that understands the latest issues and opportunities.
The regulatory context is changing and the climate crisis presents real business risks and leadership opportunities.
State and local jurisdictions are quickly implementing building performance or emissions standards. At the same time, private companies are making climate commitments that impact the entire supply chain.
Our unique perspective, as lawyers and sustainable building practitioners, means that we are able to help our clients navigate this evolving landscape. We leverage our knowledge of contractual tools and frameworks, and extensive background in sustainability, to help our clients align their contracts with their climate goals and targets, including key ESG metrics.
Making Sense of Sustainability
Compliance with Building Performance and Emissions Standards
Building Performance Standards (BPS) are a new type of regulatory tool and a necessary step to meet climate action goals. If you are a building owner and concerned about compliance and potential penalties, we know what to do. We can help you update your lease language and templates to create clarity, reduce uncertainty and align tenants towards shared climate goals.
We leverage the latest research to craft lease language that takes the pain, guesswork and risk out of compliance with building performance standards.
We help our clients navigate the latest climate-related regulations and industry standards to add value, increase resilience and reduce risk.
The great majority of leases were drafted in a time that pre-dates building performance standards and ESG goals and metrics. Chances are, your lease language has not been updated to reflect these new regulatory requirements - now is the time as compliance deadlines in many jurisdictions are looming.
Making Sense of Sustainability: It’s a new way of practicing law, because old ways are no longer working.
What we do: Climate-aligned contracts
Has your company made a climate commitment - such as “net zero by 2030” - and now you need support to make progress towards, and enforce that commitment through your supply chain? We can provide clear next steps.
We also help our clients align climate work with material Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals and metrics, to avoid greenwashing, add value to investors and other stakeholders, and comply with regulatory requirements.
Who We Are
Nicole DeNamur, Founder and Owner
J.D., WELL AP and Faculty, LEED Green Associate, Fitwel Ambassador, EcoDistricts AP, Honorary AIA*
At Climate Aligned Law, we combine more than a decade of legal experience with deep knowledge of sustainable building practices.
Nicole practiced insurance and construction law in the Seattle area for more than ten years, before she decided to focus her efforts on climate work full time.
Nicole is also an Affiliate Instructor at the University of Washington, Department of Real Estate Studies, where she teaches the course she developed, Risk and Reward in Sustainable Development. She also developed and taught the course Policy and Planning, at Boston Architectural College. Among other published work, Nicole authored a chapter of the award-winning book Health and Wellbeing for Interior Architecture (IDEC 2018 Book Award), published by Routledge.
Nicole is a WELL AP and Faculty and has served on two advisories: Task force on COVID-19 and Other Respiratory Infections and Health Equity advisory. In fact, she was an early adopted of WELL and one of the first 2,000 WELL APs. She completed Harvard Extension School’s leading ESG course, Creating, Implementing and Improving Corporate Environmental, Social and Governance Reporting, and has recently been quoted in numerous articles related to sustainable building, risk management and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) (examples here, here and here). She also recently authored the cover story for the Washington State Bar News on ESG and Law Firms.
Nicole was also a member of the team of lawyers tasked with transposing the work of The Chancery Lane Project, to US markets and relevance. She demonstrated her leadership regarding climate-aligned contracts, through this pro bono work, crafting some of the first model clauses of this type, designed for US markets. Nicole transposed what is now known as “Willow’s Clause,” which works to manage the impacts of embodied carbon in construction.
In 2021, Nicole was awarded Honorary Membership into the American Institute of Architects in Seattle, for her leadership on holistic sustainability, and legal stewardship of sustainable architecture and development in the Seattle community. Nicole currently serves on the Board of Directors. In 2022 she was named the International WELL Building Institute’s Educator of the Year and in 2023 she was named one of the Puget Sound Business Journal’s Outstanding Voices of Pride. Climate Aligned Law is a proud member of the Greater Seattle Business Association, Washington State's LGBTQ+ and allied chamber of commerce, and the largest in North America and a Certified LGBT Business Enterprise, through the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC).
*Certifying organizations include: EcoDistricts, Fitwel (Center for Active Design), Green Business Certification, Inc., International WELL Building Institute, and American Institute of Architects, Seattle.
We welcome your email, but please understand that if you are not already a client, we cannot represent you until we confirm that doing so would not create a conflict of interest and is otherwise consistent with the policies of our firm. Accordingly, please do not include any confidential information until we verify that the firm is in a position to represent you and our engagement is confirmed in a letter. Prior to that time, there is no attorney-client relationship and no assurance that information you send us will be maintained as confidential.