Lego has committed to invest approximately $150 million during the next 15 years in research and development for sustainable material to replace their current plastic that is used in their Lego pieces. The bold move represents the company’s “continued ambition to leave a positive impact on the planet, which future generations will inherit,” Lego Group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen said in a news release. A large portion of the investment will go to the construction of a Lego Sustainable Materials Centre in Denmark, which the company will staff more than 100 specialists and will open doors in 2016. This investment is a step forward for the Lego Group to achieve their 2023 ambition on sustainable materials. To date, Lego has already taken measures to reduce their carbon footprint and leave a positive impact on the planet by reducing their package sizes and by introducing ‘Forest Stewardship Council’ certified packaging and through their investment in offshore wind farms. Their next step is to focus on the materials behind the Lego blocks. I think it’s great that Lego Group is taking this initiative and investing so much money in creating new material that will be sustainable because they are a leading toy manufacturer in the world and definitely have the resources and the capacity to work on projects like this and inspire their competitors to do the same.
Currently Lego blocks are made with ABS plastic or #7 which falls under the “other” plastic group category. A lot of children’s toys are made out of this type of plastic which is actually very hard to recycle. Apparently Lego does not have a current recycling program that they offer to their customers, which is too bad. If no recycling process for these toys is in place, I can only imagine how many toys are thrown out every year and end up in garbage dumps. A UK site quotes that last year, 40 million toys were thrown out and of those 40 million, 13 million ended up in landfills. If Lego Group and other leading toy manufacturers had recycling programs, a significant percentage of waste could be cut down, and this would definitely lead the initiative to create more recycling programs to cut down toy and plastic waste.
I think it’s time for manufacturers to find innovative materials that won’t hurt the environment and create more waste. Similarly to how Adidas created the new shoe made from ocean waste. I think this is the key for future sustainable business success and is the key to taking baby steps to help our planet.
jaschen
February 17, 2016 — 4:36 pm
I think it is a great goal for Lego to achieve. As a world leading toys company, the action they take will not only benefit themselves (if it’s a good action), but also forces other companies to follow. In this case, Lego’s initiative will shift the industry frontier to the next level and create pressure to its competitors to go green and becoming more sustainable, which will have positive impact to entire society as a whole.
Since Lego is a leading player in toys industry, if they are capable of recycling their own products and reassembling it into a new one, it will save them huge amount of material cost. Additionally, such initiative will also bring side-effect to the company as being a leader in sustainability, which improve and enhance the brand image and brand associations.
PamelaMarisaMeloElbiorn
February 28, 2016 — 12:50 am
I like this article because I like Lego and it excites me that they’re taking this initiative. What impresses me the most, though, is that their goal is set to be achieved by 2023! This makes me think that, if this company that is huge and has capital to invest to make this innovation in sustainability happen is going to take that long, I can’t imagine how hard it must be for smaller, medium sized companies to change their processes and become sustainable. Also, not only it takes that much time to make these changes, but it also takes risk to invest that much capital and time in a project that most probably will succeed but still, as time goes by, many things can happen that could affect in a negative way and add more challenges or make the whole thing fail. Said that, I admire that Lego took the initiative and I really hope they achieve their goal just as they imagined it.
HenryLiu
March 12, 2016 — 6:30 pm
THAT’S CRAZY. Because of the irony in the topic itself. It’s great to see this happening. Just imagine the amount of exposure and awareness to the issues surrounding the use of plastic and un-reuseable materials that can be created because of this move. What’s even more interesting is the age demographic that uses Lego product. This is an opportunity to educate and engage with the kids that will shape the future.