Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions, Industrial  -  March 28, 2024

The LEGO Group Enters $2.4M Carbon-Removal Agreement

The LEGO Group entered a $2.4 million agreement to remove carbon as the company seeks to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.

The agreement was signed with carbon-removal company Climeworks for the permanent removal of hard-to-abate CO2 emissions from the air with Climeworks’ direct air capture and storage (DAC+S) solution.

KIRKBI, the family-owned holding and investment company of the LEGO® brand, also signed a $405,000 long-term agreement to procure Climeworks’ DAC+S carbon removal services.

The LEGO Group’s priority for GHG emissions includes an SBTi-approved target to reduce absolute GHG emissions across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 37% by 2032 versus a 2019 baseline, and its initiatives focus on designing buildings to run on energy from renewable sources while  emphasizing energy efficiency and engaging with suppliers to lower their carbon footprint. 

The company increased its solar capacity by 16% to 15.6 MWp in 2023 and plans to further increase capacity this year. New sites currently being built in Vietnam and the United States 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% versus 2022, and the Group plans to double its annual spend by 2025 compared to 2023.

While the priority remains to measurably lower the GHG emissions created from making and selling LEGO® bricks, other innovations will help accelerate progress.

“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,” Annette Stube, Chief Sustainability Officer at the LEGO Group, said in a statement. “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. 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 realize 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.

A second plant in Iceland, 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 annually when it is fully operational. The heat and electricity required to run the process is supplied by the Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Plant located in Iceland.

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