Paper bags, sustainable resin, and carbon emissions: LEGO’s path to sustainability

The LEGO Group’s path to create sustainable LEGO bricks hit an obstacle in 2023 but the company still increased the use of sustainable raw materials.

As part of the LEGO Group’s push towards becoming more sustainable, a large part of that comes down to the materials it uses, as a company that sells predominantly plastic products. In its financial results for 2023, the company announced that it increased spending on environmental initiatives by 60% in 2023 versus 2022 and plans to have doubled its annual spending compared to 2023 by 2025.

Part of this spending went into making further progress on making LEGO products themselves more sustainable. More and more paper-based bags are being used in products, in line with the LEGO Group’s goal to make all its packaging from more sustainable sources by the end of 2025.

What’s more, despite announcing that it would be scrapping plans of making bricks from recycled plastic, the LEGO Group now reports that it increased the use of other sustainable raw materials. Specifically, the company states that 18% of all resin purchased was certified according to mass balance principles (a set of rules that determine the use of recycled content in a final product). In actual terms, that translates to an estimated average of 12% renewable sources.

Carbon emissions at the LEGO Group

Outside of directly producing LEGO products using sustainable materials, the LEGO Group also affirmed its pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, with a 37% reduction planned for 2032 when compared to 2019. From 2024, there will also be an annual carbon KPI for every employee.

These carbon-neutral goals are already evidenced by the plans for two carbon-neutral facilities, one in the United States and one in Vietnam

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by buying your LEGO sets using our affiliate links. Thank you!