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

On August 30, Niels B. Christiansen, CEO of the LEGO Group, publicly pledged to achieve 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 more than 380 million tons, based on its history of buying Denmark's first plastic injection molding machine after losing all of its wooden materials in three consecutive factory fires in 1946. Every year, 100,000 tons of polymers are turned into 110 billion bricks, of which 80% are made of 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 this material is not biodegradable. LEGO, which has mass-produced non-recyclable toy bricks for 67 years, has invested $155 million in 2015 to establish a sustainable materials development technology center to replace ABS as the climate crisis has become a major barrier to its business operations.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the climate tech industry is expected to reach $148 billion (approximately 200 trillion won) by 2032, a ninefold increase from $16.9 billion (approximately 23 trillion won) in 2016. Ultimately, the climate tech industry aims for more environmentally friendly and reliable energy, faster and more comfortable transportation, tastier and healthier food, higher quality products, and better workspaces. However, it is necessary to pay attention to the possibility that the investment trend that expects the immense optimistic benefits of this technology may remain in a technological determinism perspective, which means that technological changes have the greatest impact on social relationships and structures in human futures.

Of course, the age of humans is an age of gradual technological development, progressing from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, to the age of steam, and then to the age of information. In other words, technology is clearly the driving force of history. However, instead of simply considering technology as the subject of quiet innovation, viewing it as an active mediator that drives changes in social relationships can enable a real expansion of the scope of expectations in climate tech industry investment. In this regard, the 'Three Mechanisms of Techno-Moral Change' classification system developed by John Danaher and Henrik Skaugsetra provides clues for predicting changes brought about by technology.

This theory explains that A. as a Decisional mechanism, technology presents us with new options, suggesting the possibility of work communication from anywhere with a smartphone and forcing decisions. It also explains that B. as a Relational mechanism, technology has provided changes that have enabled relationships that were impossible before, such as remote mediation of interpersonal relationships, human-to-human, and human-to-non-human AI. In addition, it explains that C. as a Perceptual mechanism, technology has brought about a conceptual presentation of information related to our decisions and actions as 'data' and 'cognition', calculable cognitive structures that did not exist before.

To summarize, Technology influences how society is formed, which in turn repeatedly generates the development of a co-constitutive relationship between technology and humans..

LEGO's investment in developing new plastic materials has not resulted in the invention of a complete replacement for ABS, but the shift to recycled plastic materials is gradually being applied to the entire brick production and improving. Furthermore, the LEGO Group acquired BrickLink, an online marketplace for trading new and used parts, in 2019 and is running the Replay Initiative program, where it receives donations of pre-made plastic bricks from around the world and delivers them to children in need of toys. This new investment standard is based on the fact that LEGO toys are passed down through generations, and when investing in LEGO products for over three years, the average return on used LEGO sets is 10-11% per year, which is higher than the returns on many collectibles such as stocks, bonds, gold, stamps, or wine. This is based on the current relationship between the product and the consumer..

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, GDP and carbon emissions have increased together. This easy growth fueled by carbon is the only growth we have witnessed over generations, and it has brought tremendous lifestyle improvements to people around the world, making it difficult to give up. 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 separation of investments that reduce future carbon emissions and investments to recycle existing products.

Everyone must participate for the future of climate technology to succeed in a sustainable way. It is time for a deeper consideration of the co-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