"We receive hundreds of letters from children asking how we can make a difference. Children are holding us accountable and demanding sustainable action for the future."

On August 30, 2023, Niels Christiansen, CEO of the Lego Group, publicly committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

In fact, Lego has been responsible for 100,000 tons of the world's total plastic production of over 380 million tons, based on its history of purchasing Denmark's first plastic injection molding machine after losing all of its wood materials in three consecutive factory fires in 1946. Every year, 100,000 tons of polymer are made into 110 billion bricks, of which 80% are made from ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene), an oil-based thermoplastic known for its strength and stiffness. ABS requires 2 kg of oil to produce 1 kg of plastic toys, and the material is not biodegradable. Lego has been mass-producing non-recyclable toy bricks for 67 years, but as the climate crisis has emerged as a major obstacle to the reality of its business operations, it began investing $155 million in 2015 to establish a sustainable materials development technology center to replace ABS.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the estimated size of the climate tech industry in 2032 is $148 billion (approximately 200 trillion won), a ninefold increase from $16.9 billion (approximately 23 trillion won) in 2016. Ultimately, the climate tech industry aims to create more environmentally friendly and reliable energy, faster and more comfortable transportation, more delicious and healthy food, higher quality products, and better workspaces. However, it is necessary to pay attention to the possibility that the investment trend expecting the boundless optimistic benefits of this technology may remain at the level of technological determinism, which believes that technological change has the greatest impact on the social relationships and structures of human futures.

Of course, the age of humans is an age of gradual technological development, progressing from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, the Steam Age, and the Information Age. In other words, technology is clearly a driving force of history. However, seeing technology not simply as a silent innovator, but as an active mediator of social change, can make it possible to expand the practical scope of expectations in climate tech industry investment. In this regard, the "three mechanisms of techno-moral change," a classification system developed by John Danaher and Henrik Skaugsetra, provides clues for predicting the changes brought about by technology.

This theory explains that A. as a "Decisional" mechanism, technology provides us with new options, presenting the possibility of business communication anywhere through smartphones and forcing us to make decisions. It also explains that B. as a "Relational" mechanism, technology has provided a change that allows relationships mediated remotely, between humans and humans, and between humans and non-human AI, which were previously impossible, in the context of face-to-face relationships. In addition, C. it explains that as a "Perceptual" mechanism, technology has brought about the presentation of information related to our decisions and actions as a calculable perception structure, "data" and "cognition," that did not previously exist.

In summary, technology influences the way societies are formed, which in turn repeatedly triggers the development of a reciprocal, constitutive relationship between technology and humans.

Lego has failed to invent a complete replacement for ABS in its investment in developing new plastic materials, but the transition to recycled plastic materials is gradually being applied to the entire brick production and improved. Furthermore, the Lego Group acquired BrickLink, an online marketplace for trading new and used parts, in 2019, and is currently running the Replay Initiative program, which receives donated plastic bricks from around the world and delivers them to children in need of toys. This new investment criterion is based on the fact that Lego toys are passed down through generations, and that the average return on investment for used Lego sets when investing in Lego products for over three years is 10-11% per year, which is higher than the return on investment of many collectibles, such as stocks, bonds, gold, stamps, or wine.based on the relationship between products and consumers that is currently confirmed.

Since the Industrial Revolution, GDP and carbon emissions have grown together. This easy growth fueled by carbon is the only growth we have consistently seen for generations, and has brought about enormous lifestyle improvements for people around the world, making it difficult to give up until now. However, for the global economy to break this cycle and achieve the necessary carbon emission reduction targets, a new type of investment is needed, namely,a strategic distinction between investment that reduces future carbon emissions and investment that recycles existing products.

For the future of climate technology to succeed in a sustainable way, everyone needs to participate. It is time for a deeper reflection on the reciprocal, constitutive relationship between technology and humans.

References

Lego Is a Company Haunted by Its Own Plastic

The Disastrous Backstory Behind the Invention of LEGO Bricks

한국사회투자 이종익 “기후테크가 스타트업의 임팩트를 창출한다”

The Future of Climate-Tech Is Everything | Valerie Shen | TEDxBoston

Mechanisms of Techno-Moral Change: A Taxonomy and Overview⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Toys Prove to Be Better Investment Than Gold, Art, and Financial Securities