LEGO Group made significant progress in adding renewable resources to its raw materials mix in 2024, more than doubling the amount of renewables in the company’s signature building bricks enjoyed by children around the world.
In its 2024 Sustainability Statement, out this week, the company said 47% of the materials purchased to make LEGO bricks were certified mass balance, which it said translates to an estimated average of 33% renewable sources in the raw materials to make its products – more than double the 12% share in 2023. An additional 3% of the materials we used came from “segregated sustainable sources.”
“We made good progress increasing the amount of renewable and recycled raw materials we buy to make our products,” said Niels B. Christiansen, CEO of the LEGO Group. “We hope this will help accelerate the industry’s transition to more sustainable, high-quality materials and create a shift away from a reliance on virgin fossil fuels.”
Christiansen said the company’s ambition is that by 2032, its bricks and elements will be made from more materials that are renewable or recycled. But he pointed out that the transition will be a challenging one given the unique product.
“LEGO bricks are made for children, so they must meet very high standards of safety. Secondly, because we want to ensure that they can be replayed for many generations, they need to meet high durability and quality criteria. Finally, new materials need to be precision engineered so that a brick made today still fits one made 60 years ago,” he said.
LEGO has tested more than 600 different materials for its bricks and other construction elements, Christiansen said. For its acrylonitrile butadiene styrene elements, which make up around 85% of the resin used in LEGO bricks, is using a “mass balance approach” to increase sustainability.
With mass balance, suppliers mix virgin fossil sources with certified renewable sources (like used cooking oil or plant oil) to produce the material to make LEGO products.
“Mass balance increases the volume of renewable materials used in the raw materials we buy, and therefore reduces the use of virgin fossil materials. Renewable materials typically have lower GHG emissions than virgin fossil materials,” Christiansen said.
LEGO also said in the report that in 2024 it increased its overall investments on environmental sustainability by 68% compared to 2023, nearly tripling spending compared to 2022.
Other highlights from the report:
- The Replay program celebrated its fifth anniversary of keeping pre-loved LEGO bricks in play.
- LEGO continued to progress our ambition to reduce single-use plastic in our packaging. 30% of packing lines have now changed to run paper-based packaging, and all LEGO factories globally have started the transition.
- The company impacted 12.69 million children with its social responsibility programs.
- LEGO continued to offer a world-class workplace experience, tracking progress via a Motivation and Satisfaction survey and ranked second among international companies surveyed by its partner Ennova.
“At the LEGO Group, we put children at the heart of everything we do and we want to play our part in creating a better and more sustainable world for them to inherit. Our fundamental belief is that play helps children to learn,” Christiansen said.
“Our ambition is to reach as many children as possible with LEGO play, while limiting the effect our operations have on the environment. We must all take responsibility to resolve the environmental challenges we’re facing. As a company beloved by children globally, we consider it vital to secure a safe future for the next generation,” he said.
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