by Shane Henson — March 7, 2012—KIRKBI, the parent company of the LEGO Group, an enterprise known for its creative building blocks worldwide, is not playing games when it comes to being more sustainable. Over the next four years, KIRKBI will invest approximately $400 million euros in the construction of a new offshore wind farm off the German coast.
According to the company, it will own one third of the wind farm’s production of electric power—equivalent to the output of more than 25 wind turbines—when the facility is completed in 2015.
The 77 turbine wind farm will be built as a joint venture by three Danish companies: DONG Energy, the Oticon Foundation via William Demant Invest, and KIRKBI. It will be the largest investment private Danish companies have ever made in a wind energy project, says KIRKBI.
To KIRKBI, which owns 75 percent of the LEGO Group, the investment is a healthy, long term investment that will also contribute to more renewable energy for the wider community. For the LEGO Group, the investment fits well with its high ambition of making a positive impact upon the environment.
The LEGO Group’s wider goal is to generate enough renewable energy capacity to meet 100 percent of its energy needs by 2020. By investing in the wind turbine project off the coast of Germany, the company will be able to meet its target because the wind farm is expected to produce more electricity than the LEGO Group’s total electricity consumption up to and including 2020.
In addition to its investment in renewable energy, the LEGO Group is also investing resources in improving its energy efficiency in production by five percent. It says that in 2010, it succeeded in reducing—by 17 percent—the consumption of gas used for heating its premises at its Czech factory by reprogramming the thermostats. The reduction was achieved in spite of the fact that the factory during the period was expanded by the addition of an extra production hall and a doubling of office capacity.
