When thinking about a brand such as Lego, sustainability does not come to mind. They produce billions of little plastic bricks. These bricks do not break down and will end up in landfills for millions of years. I began my research from a critical perspective, holding these thoughts in mind. This initial research led me to this article from the New York Times titled Lego Wants to Completely Remake Its Toy Bricks (Without Anyone Noticing).

This article is from 2018, but after continuing research, most of the data is still accurate and relevant in 2023. This article comes after statements made by The Lego Group, explaining their mission to become a greener, more environmentally-friendly company. Their bricks are made of ABS plastic, a type of plastic that cannot be recycled. Due to this, Lego has spent over one billion dollars on research towards finding an alternative to ABS plastic. They are experimenting with the use of bioplastics, recycled bottles, and different plant fibers. They also made a pledge to be “100% balanced by renewable energy by 2020,” which is something they achieved in 2017, with the development of large wind farms. They have also taken strides to eliminate waste in their packaging. Since 2018, when many of these statements were made, there have been great improvements. 

This next sustainability update is a video created by Lego in 2021. This video reveals a prototype brick created from recycled plastic. They have reached a breakthrough using plastic from recycled bottles, and are hoping after extensive testing that it will be successful enough to distribute.

I chose to examine this timeline of events, as it demonstrates the company’s morals and values. The Lego Group’s priorities lie within not only the satisfaction of their consumers, and the quality of their products, but also of the Earth. They are making strides to improve the world and create a better future for the children who use their products. They make claims of wanting to create a better world for their consumers, so imagination and creativity can continue to soar. Though the entire concept of Lego seems to be wasteful, as once again, they are bricks made of plastic, they are taking strides in a positive direction. This effort made by such a large company illustrates compassion for both the consumers and the environment, which I believe are important qualities that a successful company must have. Personally, I tend to be less reluctant to patronize a company whose morals are aligned with mine, and being environmentally-conscious is a quality I think many people take seriously.