The Lego Group has announced a DKK19 million (£2 million) commitment towards four carbon removal projects, in partnership with Climate Impact Partners and ClimeFi.
The initiatives will support biochar, enhanced rock weathering, and reforestation – and will deliver carbon removal credits between 2024 and 2026.
Lego already works with Climeworks which offers direct air capture and storage technology to help remove CO2 from its operations, but the new projects aim to help raise its understanding of emerging carbon removal and climate mitigation approaches.
Kirkbi, the family-owned holding and investment company behind the Lego brand, has also made commitments valued at DKK5 million with the same initiatives.
Lego, which announced a new supplier sustainability programme last year, acknowledged in 2023 it had abandoned its efforts to remove oil-based plastics from its bricks after finding a new material it was trialling would actually lead to higher carbon emissions rather than reduce them. The case is a high profile example of the challenges retail and consumer goods businesses have in becoming greener in their operations.
The carbon removal projects
Engineered solutions: biochar and enhanced rock weathering
In partnership with ClimeFi, Lego is supporting two biochar initiatives and one enhanced rock weathering solution.
Biochar carbon removal involves turning waste biomass into biochar, a process which stabilises carbon and stores it long term. Enhanced rock weathering speeds up the natural process of rock weathering, by spreading rock powder over agricultural fields, permanently removing carbon from the atmosphere. It is suggested that both solutions have additional benefits beyond carbon sequestration, including improving soil health.
Nature-based solutions: reforestation in Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley
Lego has partnered with Climate Impact Partners to support this large-scale reforestation project in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley in the US through the purchase of carbon credits.
The project is being developed and managed by the GreenTrees platform and aims to reforest more than 400,000 hectares, in a region that has experienced much deforestation. Reforestation aims to enhance biodiversity, restore ecosystems and remove carbon from the atmosphere.
The project also aims to enhance flood protection, protecting against hurricanes and flood damage, and improve water quality in the Mississippi River by reducing nutrient run-off.
Annette Stube, chief sustainability officer at the Lego Group, said the company believed the projects would have “a positive impact on the wider environmental ecosystem”.
“Innovative, high-quality carbon removal projects and emerging technologies have the potential to play an important role in supporting a more sustainable future, while reforestation has the potential to support improved biodiversity,” she explained.
“These partnerships allow us to build our understanding of new technologies and practices to support a healthy planet for future generations.”
[image credit: Green Retail World]
