Avani Panchal

As a Climate Advisor at Orrick, Avani is a key member of our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Group. She provides non-legal advice to clients on their climate-related governance, strategy, risk management, and relevant targets and metrics, as well as the identification of relevant ESG issues for a range of companies, the collection and analysis of key climate- and ESG- performance metrics, the preparation of climate- and ESG-related disclosures, and research and writing on emerging climate and ESG trends. She also advises and assists clients in conducting greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) inventories, including identifying emissions boundaries and material categories of Scope 3 GHG emissions.

Prior to joining Orrick, Avani worked as a Corporate Sustainability and Climate Change (CS&CC) Manager at ERM (2021-2023) and as an Air Quality/Sustainability Senior Consultant at Ramboll U.S. Corporation (2012-2021). At both these consulting firms she worked on a variety of air quality and GHG compliance, permitting, and reporting projects, along with ESG due diligence using International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards and Equator Principles. Avani has developed GHG inventories and evaluation of GHG mitigation strategies for a variety of sectors, including city/county municipalities, corporations, airports and seaports, logistical warehouses, and oil and gas facilities.

She has managed and developed Climate Change and Sustainability Reports and Plans, Energy Conservation Plans, and Corporate Social Responsibility Reports, using reporting frameworks such as GHG Protocol, Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), CDP, and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Avani has robust expertise with GHG analysis and reporting, strategy development, policy and regulatory review, and peer benchmarking, for projects located both within the United States and internationally.

Avani has a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (2011) and a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, India (2007).