Corporate supply chains are riddled with high, uncounted emissions, as Lego discovered. New regulations mean more companies will face tough,
The company has pledged US$1.4 billion to reduce carbon emissions by 2025, despite netting annual profits of just over $2 billion in 2022. ... So it was surprising when the Financial Times reported on Sept. 25, 2023, that Lego had pulled out of its widely publicized “Bottles to Bricks” initiative. ... When Lego assessed the project’s environmental impact throughout its supply chain, it found that producing bricks with the recycled plastic would require extra materials and energy to make them durable enough. This conversion process would result in higher carbon emissions. ... Scope 1 emissions are generated directly by a company’s internal operations. Scope 2 emissions are caused by generating the electricity, steam, heat or cooling a company consumes. And scope 3 emissions are generated by a company’s supply chain, from upstream suppliers to downstream distributors and end customers. ... Companies’ scope 3 emissions are on average 11.4 times greater than their scope 1 emissions. A staggering 98% of Lego’s carbon emissions are categorized as scope 3. ... The EU in June 2023 adopted the first set of European Sustainability Reporting Standards, which will require publicly traded companies in the EU to disclose their scope 3 emissions, starting in their reports for fiscal year 2024. California’s legislature passed similar legislation requiring companies with revenues of more than $1 billion to disclose their scope 3 emissions. ... This calls for a nuanced understanding of sustainability, not as a checklist of good deeds, but as a complex, ongoing process that requires vigilance, transparency and, above all, a commitment to the benefit of future generations.















