LEGO Wants Sustainable Building Blocks

Here's another company in transformation and investing in sustainability.  We applaud LEGO for using better materials that do not end up adding more plastic to our waste woes.  There is a better way and they will better serve kids by finding it.

Go to our main network site--Renewable Now.biz for more of this week's stories and updates:

The LEGO Group establishes LEGO Sustainable Materials Centre and expects to recruit more than 100 employees in a significant step up on the 2030 ambition of finding and implementing sustainable alternatives to current materials.

Packaging is a major source of pollution--in manufacturing and disposition by the consumer--and needs lots of improvement.  We've done shows on this (and there is a industry group working with most of the major consumer providers to bring rapid improvement) and will talk to LEGO about this side of their goals.

Earlier this year, the LEGO Group announces a significant investment of DKK 1 billion dedicated to research, development and implementation of new, sustainable, raw materials to manufacture LEGO® elements as well as packaging materials.

Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO and President of the LEGO Group, says:

“This is a major step for the LEGO Group on our way towards achieving our 2030 ambition on sustainable materials. We have already taken important steps to reduce our carbon footprint and leave a positive impact on the planet by reducing the packaging size, by introducing FSC certified packaging and through our investment in an offshore wind farm. Now we are accelerating our focus on materials.”

The investment will result in the establishment of the LEGO Sustainable Materials Centre. The centre will be based at the LEGO Group’s headquarters in Billund, Denmark, and include all current functions and employees working to find alternative materials. In addition, the LEGO Group expects to recruit more than 100 specialists within the materials field during the coming years to work on this challenging ambition.

The LEGO Sustainable Materials Centre organisation will be established during 2015 and 2016, and it is expected that it will include satellite functions located in relevant locations around the globe. In addition, the centre will collaborate and develop partnerships with relevant external stakeholders and experts.

LEGO Group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen comments on the announcement:

“Our mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. We believe that our main contribution to this is through the creative play experiences we provide to children. The investment announced is a testament to our continued ambition to leave a positive impact on the planet, which future generations will inherit. It is certainly in line with the mission of the LEGO Group and in line with the motto of my grandfather and founder of the LEGO Group, Ole Kirk Kristiansen: Only the best is good enough”.

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