The LEGO Group revealed significant progress in its efforts to increase the use of sustainable materials in its products, announcing that its LEGO bricks in 2024 consisted of an estimated 33% material from renewable sources, nearly tripling year-over-year.
The new data was released with LEGO Group’s 2024 Sustainability Statement, outlining the company’s progress towards its sustainability targets. The company’s goals include making its products from more sustainable materials, or those produced using renewable or recycled resources and generating little or no waste, by 2032, as well as its targets to reach net zero emissions across the value chain by 2050 and to reduce carbon emissions by 37% by 2032, on a 2019 basis.
In its report, LEGO Group also revealed that it increased overall investments on environmental sustainability by 68% in 2024 over the prior year, and has nearly tripled sustainable spend from 2022.
One of LEGO Group’s sustainability strategy’s key focus areas includes initiatives to invest in sustainable materials research to reduce the carbon footprint of products and packaging. The company announced in 2023 that it had dropped its plans to produce bricks from rPET plastics from recycled bottles, one of its key projects aimed at shifting away from fossil-based plastics, following two years of testing, after determining that it would not ultimately result in reduced carbon emissions.
In its update, LEGO Group said that it has tested more than 600 material grades for its products, and that it is testing a number of recycled and renewable solutions for acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, a polymer that makes up around 85% of the resin used in LEGO bricks, but noted that these solutions are not yet all available at scale.
As it explores new materials, the company is using a mass balance approach to increase the amount of renewable and recycled input in its raw materials, under which suppliers mix input from both virgin fossil and certified renewable and recycled sources, such as used cooking oil or plant oil, with the suppliers providing certificates confirming the amount of renewable content LEGO Group has purchased.
The company revealed that in 2024, it scaled the mass balance approach to 47% of its purchased resin, up from 18% in 2023, resulting in an estimated average of 33% renewable sources for total resin procured, up from 12% in 2023. LEGO Group’s 2025 target is to reach 53% mass balance.
Additional sustainability initiatives announced by the company in 2024 included the launch of a Supplier Sustainability programme, outlining a new set of actions and requirements for suppliers, including setting and reporting on emissions reduction targets, and an increased shift to paper-based packaging. In its update, LEGO Group revealed that 52 suppliers, representing over 50% of its scope 3 GHG emissions, have committed to reach emissions reduction targets set by the company for 2026 and 2028, and that 93% of its paper packaging by weight is made from paper, with a target to reach 95% in 2025.
In the report, LEGO Group CEO Niels B. Christiansen said:
“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.”
