Sustainable Biz #5 - Magazine - Page 45
A
s part of a commitment to reduce
its environmental impact and
build a sustainable future for
children, the LEGO Group has entered a
$2.4 million agreement with pioneering
high-quality carbon-removal company
Climeworks, as it continues to utilise a
broad portfolio of initiatives to progress
towards net-zero carbon emissions.
The agreement is for the permanent
removal of hard-to-abate CO2 emissions
from the air with Climeworks’ direct air
capture and storage (DAC+S) solution and
is designed to help Climeworks accelerate
its technology scale up. KIRKBI, the
family-owned holding and investment
company of the LEGO® brand, has also
signed a $405,000 long-term agreement
to procure Climeworks’ DAC+S carbon
removal services.
With a focus on the permanent removal of
CO2 from the atmosphere, Climeworks’
DAC+S solution can play an important
role in achieving net-zero carbon
emissions. In 2023, the United Nation’s
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) stated that the use of
“carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will be
necessary to achieve net negative CO2
emissions”. The LEGO Group takes CO2
emissions into account across all areas of
its business and the 9-year (2023-2032)
agreement means DAC+S will be one
of a suite of initiatives designed to help
the company achieve its net-zero carbon
emissions target by 2050.
The LEGO Group’s key priority for GHG
emissions remains reducing the impact of
its factories, offices and stores, and supply
chain. It has a SBTi approved target to
reduce absolute GHG emissions (Scope
1, 2 & 3) by 37 percent by 2032 (vs. a
2019 baseline) and its initiatives focus on
designing buildings to run on energy from
renewable sources, emphasising energy
efficiency and engaging with suppliers to
lower their carbon footprint. For example,
the company increased its solar capacity by
16 percent to 15.6 MWp in 2023 and plans
to further increase capacity this year. New
sites, currently being built in Vietnam and
the USA, are reviewing plans to include
renewables that comply with both site and
local government requirements.
In 2023 the LEGO Group increased
spending on environmental initiatives
by 60 percent vs. 2022, and by 2025
plans to have doubled its annual spend
compared to 2023. While the priority
remains to measurably reduce the GHG
emissions created from making and selling
LEGO® bricks, innovations beyond the
value chain will play a valuable role in
accelerating progress. Annette Stube, Chief
Sustainability Officer at the LEGO Group,
commented: “We want children to inherit
a healthy planet and we’re determined
to play our part in making that happen.
To succeed we must take action to drive
systemic change.
“We were the first large
toy company to announce
a science-based emissions
reduction target in 2020
and we want to continue
to lead the way in finding
innovative solutions for the
challenges we face."
Annette Stube
Chief Sustainability Officer
"This is why we are working with
innovators like Climeworks – their
technology, as part of a varied programme
of initiatives, can help us and society
as a whole realise the net-zero future
that is needed to protect our planet for
generations to come”.
Climeworks opened the world’s first
and largest DAC+S commercial plant,
called Orca, in Iceland in 2021 to capture
CO2 from the air and store it directly
underground. The process involves the air
being drawn into large collector containers
where the CO2 is captured through a filter.
The collected CO2 is then stored deep
underground by Climeworks’ storage
partner Carbfix, where it is injected deep
into the ground and transformed into
stone through an accelerated natural
process. The filtered air is released back
into the atmosphere. In 2022, Climeworks
announced it would build a second plant
in Iceland. The site, called Mammoth,
is due to open in May 2024 and will be
Climeworks’ largest direct air capture and
storage plant, capable of a nominal CO2
capture capacity of up to 36,000 tons per
year when fully operational. The heat and
electricity required to run the process is
supplied by the Hellisheidi Geothermal
Power Plant located in Iceland. Alongside
carbon reductions and removals initiatives,
the LEGO Group is working to find
solutions to make its products from
more sustainable materials. This includes
increasing its use of material that has
been certified according to mass balance
principles. In 2023, 18 percent of all resin
purchased was certified according to mass
balance principles, which translates into an
estimated average of 12 percent renewable
sources. The plan is to significantly
increase this percentage in 2024 and
beyond.
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