LEGO breaks ground on $1B carbon-neutral factory in Virginia

by arslan_ahmed | April 18, 2023 10:44 am

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Representing an investment worth $1 billion, the LEGO Group recently broke ground on its new carbon-neutral run factory in Chesterfield County near Richmond, Virginia.

The new factory shares the same ambition, as all LEGO operations, of achieving zero waste from factories to landfill. When completed in 2025, the LEGO factory aims to be carbon-neutral, meaning it can demonstrate net-zero emissions from electricity and fuel use (scope one and two), using on-site or off-site renewable energy.

The 340-acre (138-ha) site will have rooftop (15,000-20,000 roof panels) and ground solar panels (35,000-40,000 ground panels), and an on-site 35-40 MW solar plant, targeted to fulfil the total annual energy requirements of the site.

The site will be designed to support the company’s sustainability goals, which include reducing its absolute global carbon emissions by 37 percent by 2032. The company will use the latest energy-efficient production equipment, while buildings and manufacturing processes are designed to minimize energy use.

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There will be 13 buildings spanning over 160,000 m² (1.7 million sf), ranging from office spaces, molding, processing, packing buildings, and a high bay warehouse. The aim is to secure Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification for the new factory once it is completed.

The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Carsten Rasmussen, chief operations officer, and Skip Kodak, regional president, America at LEGO Group; alongside Virginia state officials and key partners.

To celebrate the groundbreaking, the LEGO Group revealed it will officially ramp up its community investments by providing more than $1 million (USD) to charitable organizations that support local children from disadvantaged backgrounds with learning-through-play programs.

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Children of the greater Richmond area will also have a say in the site’s development. In March, the LEGO Group invited 250 children to share their ideas for making the land around the factory buildings welcoming for animals, plants, and visitors.

Built with LEGO bricks, their ideas ranged from building trees for flying squirrels and birds, to fitting plants with cameras to enable visitors to observe the area’s biodiversity live and in color. The children’s ideas will inspire the final landscaping design in 2025.

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The factory investment in Virginia will expand the LEGO Group’s global manufacturing network, which is designed to locate factories close to major markets. This allows the company to respond to shifts in local demand, shorten the supply chain, and reduce its environmental impact.

“We are absolutely delighted to mark the beginning of construction here in Virginia. We are grateful for the fruitful collaboration we have had with all partners across the Commonwealth of Virginia, who share and support our ambition to build this factory,” says Rasmussen. “We are working hard to reduce emissions at the LEGO Group and are really excited about our plans to build this solar plant as we push toward a better world for our children to inherit.”

Source URL: https://www.constructionspecifier.com/lego-breaks-ground-on-1b-carbon-neutral-factory-in-virginia/

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