LEGO Group has announced an investment of 1 billion Danish krone ($0.15 billion) for research, development and implementation of new, sustainable, raw materials for the manufacture of LEGO elements and packaging materials.
“This is a major step for the LEGO Group on our way towards achieving our 2030 ambition on sustainable materials,” Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO and President of the LEGO Group, says.
“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,” he has added.
The company will be using the investment to establish LEGO Sustainable Materials Center based at Billund, Denmark, the headquarters of LEGO Group.
According to a statement, LEGO Group will be recruiting more than 100 materials specialists in the coming years to work on the challenging mission.
LEGO has stated that it will be establishing the sustainable materials centre organisation through this year and the next. The centre will have satellite institutions based around the globe and it will collaborate with external stakeholders and experts working toward similar goals.
LEGO Group decided to boost research on sustainable materials in May. But it had in 2012, initiated efforts to implement sustainable alternatives to the current raw materials used to manufacture LEGO products by 2030.
Ajith Kumar S