Business Ethics And Social Responsibility

Student Name : Zaid Lallo

Student ID : 1610249
Supervised by : Dr.Khaled aladwan
 Corporate Social Responsibility In “LEGO”

Introduction :

LEGO : is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a
privately held company based in Billund , Denmark.. Founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk
Kristiansen, and based on the iconic LEGO® brick, it is one of the world's leading
manufacturers of play materials , The Lego Group began manufacturing the interlocking toy
bricks in 1949

The Lego Group got its start in the carpentry workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen. He started
making wooden toys in 1932. He began calling his company “Lego" in 1934, based upon the
Danish phrase leg godt, which means “play well." The Lego Group began making its famous
plastic interlocking blocks in 1949.

It was also reported that The Lego Group had become the world's most valuable toy company
ahead of Mattel with a value at over $14.6 billion.

As of July 2015, 600 billion Lego parts had been produced.

Guided by the company spirit: "Only the best is good enough”, the company is committed to
the development of children and aims to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow
through creative play and learning.

Quick Statistics :

16,836 (Average employees 2016)

37.9 billion (DKK)= (4.2B JOD)

(Revenue 2016 (

9.4 billion (DKK) = (1.2B JOD)

(Net profit 2016)

CSR Definition : Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business approach that
contributes to sustainable development by delivering economic, social and environmental
benefits for all stakeholders. Also CSR is a concept with many definitions and practices

According to the Reputation Institute(RepTrak) 2017 Ranking, Lego occupied the first place

About RepTrak:

RepTrak® is the gold standard for reputation measurement, providing a one-of-a-kind

measurement of how the public views the world’s best-known companies, examining 15
stakeholder groups in more than 25 industries and more than 50 countries for more than 7,000
companies. Its annual rankings are based on each company’s “Pulse” – the emotional
connection consumers have to a brand.

The results are further broken down into seven dimensions of rationality, which define why
consumers feel the way they do. The dimensions are Products/Services, Innovation,
Workplace, Governance, Citizenship, Leadership, and Performance.

All children have the right to fun, creative and engaging play experiences. Play is essential
because when children play, they learn. As a provider of play experiences, we must ensure
that our behavior and actions are responsible towards all children and towards our
stakeholders, society and the environment. We are committed to continue earning the trust
our stakeholders place in us, and we are always inspired by children to be the best we can be.
They aim to inspire children through their unique playful learning experiences and to play an
active role in making a global difference on product safety while being dedicated promoters
of responsibility towards children. Also they want to create positive impact on society, and an
important part of this ambition is to reduce their environmental impact. They want to address
climate change by reducing their emissions through improving their energy efficiency, and
they want to source and use resources responsibly and to improve their waste management.
This is to ensure they do not consume resources and materials at a faster rate than they are
regenerated, so that future generations can also benefit from the same variety of resources
and materials our generation has access to

In their daily work they strive to uphold the highest ethical business standards and business
practices, with respect for human and labour rights, while doing everything they can to
promote and protect their employees’ well-being and safety. they will never sacrifice their
values or purpose for the sake of short-term profit.

They want children, the builders of tomorrow, to inherit a healthy planet, and they have an
ambition to contribute by creating positive impact through their environmental actions. That
is why they evaluate their business through an environmental impact assessment. To see
where they can achieve the largest reduction in our CO2 emissions, they look at every aspect
along their value chain, from sourcing of materials through to disposal of waste. They have
two strategic priorities:

Reducing CO2 emissions: It is their aim to reduce their own and their suppliers’ CO2
emissions and to build 100% renewable energy capacity. They work closely with the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in setting ambitious targets to reduce CO2 emissions
through improving their energy efficiency, and they have invested in an offshore wind
farm to produce renewable energy to balance our global energy use.

Responsible resources: They want to innovate our sourcing and use of materials. They
have therefore made a commitment to find and implement sustainable alternatives to our
current oil-based raw materials by 2030 and to use sustainable packaging for all LEGO®
products, while also aiming to improve their waste management.

Together with WWF( World Wide Fund), the LEGO Group has set ambitious targets to
ensure more sustainable means of producing LEGO® play experiences, and by 2020 has
committed to:

-A further 10% increase in carbon (CO2) efficiency per LEGO brick produced

-Continuing to ensure 100% of energy consumption is balanced by production of renewable

energy sources

-Further engaging with key suppliers to reduce the CO2 emissions in the full supply chain
Also Partnering to support children’s rights and development - LEGO Group, LEGO
Foundation and UNICEF

Inspired by children Not only are children their role models, they are also their most
important stakeholders. That is why the best interests and well-being of the child are at the
very core of their values, and why they strongly pioneer business conduct that promotes
responsibility towards children.

When children play, they develop vital skills. LEGO are providers of fun, engaging and
creative play experiences that help children develop social, emotional and intellectual skills,
laying a foundation that lasts a lifetime. The LEGO® System in Play is unique in that it
combines structure, logic and creativity, which enables learning through play by reasoning
systematically and thinking creatively.

In terms of safety , They produce high-quality and safe products that benefit the value of play
for all children worldwide, and they work purposefully on pioneering product safety and
quality throughout the entire toy industry.

A large part of their dedicated work lies in promoting responsibility towards children and
includes promoting children’s rights and well-being. In their daily business, they commit to
the 10 Children’s Rights and Business Principles that guide organizations on how to conduct
business responsibly towards children.

According to the "Technological development" they also showed attention to the evolution
In a globalised and digitalized world, it is important to promote the benefits of fun, safe and
educational online opportunities for children while minimizing any potential risks.

They provide children with fun, safe and enjoyable digital experiences within which they can
create, play and have fun, while learning good digital behavior that adds value to children
throughout their lives. However, there are risks to digital engagement and together with their
partners, we work to reduce the risks that online interactions may pose to children, They have
developed a Digital Child Safety policy. The policy provides global direction for the LEGO
Group and will be implemented through mandatory training and guidelines. Furthermore,
they strengthened their Responsible Marketing to Children policy and ensured that all
employees working in commercial communication receive training to ensure global
compliance with their standards. The Digital Child Safety policy will also apply to their
partners who work with them to deliver LEGO® branded experiences.

It's all related to the code of conduct or the ethical business standards that’s the successful
company way of thinking.

Every employee and third party acting on behalf of the LEGO Group must apply high ethical
standards and principles of integrity, honesty and legality in all they do. Ethical conduct is
not only the right thing to do, it is mandatory, and it upholds a long company tradition and
reflects their company values of imagination, creativity, fun, learning, caring and quality.
Embedding a responsible and ethical culture entails defining clear expectations towards
expected behavior. Their Code of Ethical Business Conduct serves as a guide in making the
right ethical decisions when working anywhere in the world. Their communication and
training is built around their values of learning – communicating an understanding of the why
and fun – to stimulate involvement and discussions of a serious subject. To ensure awareness
of their business conduct and anti-corruption principles, all salaried LEGO® employees must
complete their e-learning training courses on business conduct and anti-corruption every
second year.

Their ambition is to continue their journey embedding the values and ethical mindset of their
growing global organization and their aspiration of being the most ethical company in the
world.

They work systematically with their suppliers to support decent and fair working conditions
in their entire supply chain. They require that their suppliers and business partners sign their
Code of Conduct, which covers important matters related to human rights, labour rights,
health and safety, anti-corruption and the work environments of all employees.

they regularly monitor compliance to their Code of Conduct through dialogue and their audit
programme, and they use third party auditors and a stringent follow-up system. They work
with their suppliers on building their understanding and means to meet the requirements in
the Code of Conduct and improve their performance through training and capacity building.

As a purpose driven and responsible company, they aim to play an active role in engaging
with the local communities where we are present. The Local Community Engagement
programme (LCE) was established in 2014 and works in partnership with the LEGO
Foundation to build and support local communities in countries where the LEGO Group has a
meaningful presence.

The LEGO Group engages employees in volunteer activities that benefit the local
communities where they are present.

In 2016, they significantly expanded the local community engagement programme with
thousands of LEGO® volunteers participating in over 180 events across 20 countries,
reaching more than 100,000 children around the world.

Local community engagement

Through the LCE programme, they aim to play an active role in inspiring and developing
children’s ability to learn through play, build employee engagement, and further demonstrate
their commitment to responsible corporate citizenship. LEGO® employees drive the
programme through volunteer activities, which are supported both financially and through
product donations by the LEGO Group and the LEGO Foundation. A network of LCE
consultants and employees around the world carefully select impactful child focused
organizations in the communities where they live and work. they work with charity partners
through a powerful combination of focused employee volunteering, coupled with targeted
financial and product donations, to establish and maintain strong employee engagement and
robust relationships. While each community portfolio is tailored for local context, needs and
interests, they priorities programmes that leverage the transformative power of learning
through play.

LEGO® Build the Change Build the Change events inspire and empower children to build
the future they want to see using LEGO® bricks. During 2016, over 65,000 children
participated in 17 Build the Change events around the world. During the events, children use
the LEGO bricks to communicate and express their creativity by building different themes
such as their ideal school, their future neighborhood, or a sustainable city.

During 2016, the local community engagement programme was expanded, with thousands of
LEGO® volunteers participating in over 180 events across 20 countries, reaching more than
100,000 children around the world.

A key focus of their Local Community Engagement programme during 2016 was their
involvement in summer camps for children around the world. These included both events
hosted by LEGO volunteers as well as external events where LEGO representatives
participated in the camps, bringing along playful learning experiences for the children to
enjoy. During 2016, they held summer camps in countries including China, Denmark and the
USA. The aim of the camps is to inspire and develop children to build on their personal
strengths and give them the courage to aim for their dreams.

In continuation of an initiative from 2015, they supported seven schools from Kladno, Czech
Republic, to prepare original projects to support playful learning. LEGO volunteers engaged
over 1,100 students in projects including classroom and work-related activities, such as
traditional crafts and learning geometry through play. Also included was an outdoor
classroom with focus on scientific experiments and a multi-functional play area in the
kindergarten.

Any company in the world have a vision , mission and responsibilities to clarify to the
stakeholders all the regulations, terms and objective , Despite all the activities LEGO did
They are looking forward to continue what they start by different activates like :

1- They aim to – eventually - reach every child in every country with their creative, fun, and
engaging play experiences, by innovating and globalising the LEGO® System in Play.

2-They want to make a global difference on product safety and quality in the toy industry
through their active chairs in several toy safety committees.

3- They aim to live up to the highest standards for business conduct with highest respect for
international labour and human rights.

4- They said : our employees are extremely important to us, and we have an ambition of
becoming world-class in employee safety.
Conclusion : The LEGO Group is now a business that is very profitable they are one of the
largest toy manufacture when it comes in terms of sales, we can consider the company as one
of the best companies who applied the Corporate social responsibility and they teach us how
to be a successful company and helpful for the community, on the other hand being social
and helpful to the community ,it's also a way of marketing strategy and making a good well
and brand image

References :

1- https://wwwsecure.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/responsibility

Author/ : Martin Vang Sandgaard Jensen 12 February 2015/ The LEGO Group

2- https://www.reputationinstitute.com/csr-reptrak

3- www.wikipedea.com