--- title: The Chancery Lane Project secures US$650,000 to build a tool that benchmarks contracts against climate laws and standards date: 2026-10-22T08:37:16Z modified: 2026-10-22T08:39:36Z permalink: "https://chancerylaneproject.org/news/the-chancery-lane-project-secures-us650000-to-build-tool-that-benchmarks-contracts-against-climate-laws-and-standards/" type: post status: publish excerpt: The Chancery Lane Project secures US$650,000 from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation to develop a climate contract benchmarking tool and new model clauses to reduce AI’s environmental impact. The funding builds on TCLP’s work to make practical legal knowledge and resources accessible to drive positive outcomes for climate, nature and society. wpid: 11730 categories: - Organisational updates - Press and media featured_image: "https://chancerylaneproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/apex-virtual-education-KNQUEQwTCY4-unsplash-scaled.jpg" timestamp: 2026-10-22T08:39:36Z tags: - Organisational updates - Press and media --- - _The funding will enable TCLP to build a benchmarking tool. Lawyers will be able to check how their contract wording measures up against relevant laws, regulations, standards and frameworks._ - _TCLP will also develop new model clauses to reduce the environmental impact of artificial intelligence (AI), including the data centres it relies on._ - _The grant builds on the foundation’s first round of funding, which enabled TCLP to bring its clauses into AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude._ **London, UK. 20 October:** [The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP)](https://chancerylaneproject.org/), a specialist legal knowledge nonprofit using contracts to drive positive outcomes for climate, nature and society, has received USD $650,000 (approximately £491,000) from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation (PJMF). The funding will enable TCLP to build a tool that lets lawyers benchmark their contracts against relevant laws, regulations, standards and frameworks. It will also fund new model clauses to reduce the environmental impact of artificial intelligence (AI). The grant follows the foundation’s first grant of USD $250,000 in 2025. Most of the new funding is intended to support development of a climate contract benchmarking tool. Lawyers will be able to compare their contract wording against TCLP climate clauses, existing best practice and relevant climate laws, regulations, standards and frameworks. The tool will assess the potential climate impact of content, potential greenwashing risks, and compliance with the regulatory environment, legal requirements, and ambition. It will work on contracts drafted using TCLP’s clauses, on climate clauses drafted in-house, as well as contracts that do not yet address climate at all. Legal teams can use the results to compare drafts, find gaps, or start an internal conversation about what to change. The benchmarking tool builds on the first round of funding, which enabled TCLP to launch its [MCP](https://mcp.chancerylaneproject.org/) connector, backed by a knowledge graph of climate contracting content. With it, lawyers can ask ChatGPT or Claude a question in plain English and get back TCLP’s reviewed clauses, guides and definitions, without leaving the AI assistant. The connector does not write or generate legal text. It only returns content that TCLP has already checked. “The first round of funding let us put our clauses into the tools lawyers already use. The obvious next question from users was: how good is what I have produced?” said Ben Metz, Executive Director at The Chancery Lane Project. “Benchmarking answers that question. And as AI becomes part of everyday legal work, the contracts that govern AI itself need to address its environmental footprint. We will keep experimenting and prototyping, but we are now building on a foundation that works.” The funding will also enable TCLP to develop new model clauses that reduce the environmental impact of AI and the data centres it relies on. Legal experts will draft these clauses, drawing on TCLP’s subject matter expertise. They will include clauses for: - Buying AI services, covering issues such as water usage disclosure and 24/7 carbon-free energy. These clauses will support existing frameworks such as the EU’s model contractual clauses for public AI procurement. - Building and leasing data centres, including construction contracts, leases and planning conditions. Nick Cain, VP, Strategy & Innovation, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation: “Commercial contracts shape every piece of the global economy, and our economic choices will shape our climate future. TCLP turns the documents lawyers write every day into powerful tools to fight climate change. Applying this public good to the environmental impact of AI and data centres is a natural and urgent evolution of TCLP’s work.” In the coming weeks, TCLP will publish its plans for keeping its content and tools accurate and up to date, so users can trust what they get back. TCLP will build the benchmarking tool in stages, using feedback from lawyers to shape each new version. Part of the funding will also expand TCLP’s legal knowledge graph, which links its clauses, guides and definitions to the climate issues and legal concepts they relate to. As with the first round, TCLP will share everything it develops through the programme openly, for public benefit. **Ends** ## Topics **Categories:** [Organisational updates](https://chancerylaneproject.org/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/taxonomy/category/organisational-updates.md), [Press and media](https://chancerylaneproject.org/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/taxonomy/category/press-and-media.md)