Stay on target
Two years ago, Lego started on a $200 million journey to manufacture more eco-friendly bricks. Three years before that, they had already kicked off another green initiative: a commitment to supporting renewable energy.
In 2012, Lego pledged to offset 100% of their worldwide energy consumption through renewable investments. Under the company’s plan, they hoped to achieve that goal by the year 2020. This week, however, they announced some big news. Lego met — and surpassed — their goal three years ahead of schedule.
It’s certainly great to see the world’s largest toymaker setting a good example. Last year Lego factories produced more than 75 billion bricks and consumed around 360 gigawatt-hours of electricity in the process.
The fact that they managed to offset that usage three years early is an impressive achievement, and it’s one that required involvement in multiple projects. The latest saw the deployment of 32 8.0MW turbines off the coast of Liverpool, England. So far, Lego has helped add more than 160MW of clean energy capacity.
Lego will continue supporting the push for clean energy through its involvement in a couple of initiatives. One is the WWF’s Climate Savers, which works with companies to reduce carbon emissions, minimize environmental impact, and ensure a business’ core remains sustainable.
The other is RE100, a group of 94 companies that committed to going 100% renewable. Several big names appear on its roster along with the Lego Group, including Apple, Facebook, Google, Ikea, Microsoft, and the beer-making juggernaut AbInbev… who you may remember is working to shift 490-gigawatt hours per year to renewable sources.