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Lego opened a $1 billion factory in Vietnam on Wednesday that it says will make toys without adding planet-warming gas to the atmosphere by relying entirely on clean energy. The factory in the industrial area of Binh Duong, close to Ho Chi Minh City, is the first in Vietnam that aims to run entirely on clean energy. Lego says it will do that by early 2026. It’s the Danish company’s sixth worldwide and its second in Asia. It will use high-tech equipment to produce colorful Lego bricks for Southeast Asias growing markets. We just want to make sure that the planet that the children inherit when they grow up needs to be a planet that is still there. That is functional, Lego CEO Niels Christiansen told The Associated Press. The factory is an important factor in Lego’s quest to stop adding greenhouse gases by 2050. It has a shorter-term target of reducing emissions by 37% by 2032. The privately held group makes its bricks out of oil-based plastic and says it has invested more than $1.2 billion in a search for more sustainable alternatives. But those efforts have not always been successful. Fast-industrializing Vietnam also aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, so it needs more of its factories to use clean energy. The country hopes the plants 12,400 solar panels and energy storage system will help set a precedent for more sustainable manufacturing. Locating the Lego factories in regions they supply has also helped insulate them from the tariffs ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump, Christiansen said. Right now, I am probably more observant of what does this mean to growth in the world? Do we see consumer sentiment changing in parts of the world or not, and what would that potentially mean? he said. The blocks are made from differently colored plastic grains that are melted at high temperatures and then fed into metal molds. The highly-automated factory uses robots for making the bricks to a tenth of a hair’s width precision and then packaging them. It eventually will employ thousands of mostly skilled workers to operate these machines. Some of them have already begun work after being trained in in Lego’s factory in eastern China. Manufacturing makes up a fifth of Vietnam’s GDP and consumes half the energy it uses. There are plans to phase out its coal power plants by 2040. The Lego factory, which spans 62 soccer fields, sets the blueprint for making large, power-guzzling factories sustainable while remaining profitable, said Mimi Vu, a founder of the consultancy Raise Partners in Ho Chi Minh City. Sometimes it takes a big company, like Lego, to take those risks. To show that we can do it And we can be profitable, she said. The factory will benefit from a new 2024 rule known as a direct power purchase agreement or DPPA, which allows big foreign companies to buy clean energy directly from solar and wind power producers and to meet their clean energy requirements. The factory will be linked to an adjacent energy center where electricity can be stored in large batteries. So even if the sun is only shining during the day, we store the energy and can use it all over. That will cover by far the majority of the consumption of the factory, added Christiansen, The remaining 10%-20% of the factory’s energy needs will be met through agreements with other clean energy producers. Lego and Vietnam, we are having the same aspirations. We both want to be green, to play our part in the climate. And I think this with the solar and battery and DPPA, it is showcasing that it can be done, Jesper Hassellund Mikkelsen, Senior Vice President Asia Operations at the LEGO Group told The AP. The company will also open a distribution center in Vietnam’s southern Dong Nai province to help serve markets in Australia and other Asian countries where it sees an opportunity for growth. The five buildings in the factory meet high energy efficiency standards. Lego also has planted 50,000 trees twice the number of the trees it cut to clear land for the factory. It’s the first Lego factory to replace single-use plastic bags with paper bags for packaging. Lego’s founder, Ole Kirk Kristiansen, started the company as a wooden toy maker before patenting the iconic plastic bricks in 1958. It is still is seeking a way to make its plastic bricks more environmentally friendly. Christiansen said Lego bricks last decades and could be reused, though the ultimately ambition is to make them out of more renewable materials. He said that a third of the materials used in Lego bricks made last year were from renewable and recycled sources. But that’s more expensive than plastic made out of fossil fuels. Its not inexpensive at this point in time, but we believe if we … lean into that, we help create a supply chain for the type of plastic materials that are not based on fossil fuel, he said. Aniruddha Ghosal, Associated Press The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Category:
E-Commerce
Jared Bossly was planting soybeans one spring night in 2023 on his 2,000-acre farm in South Dakota when he spotted a sheriffs vehicle parked at the corner of his property. He had a hunch it wasnt a social visit. Im like, Well, I doubt hes just being a friendly neighbor, giving a guy a beer at eight oclock at night, said Bossly, 43. He was right. The sheriffs deputy served him court papers. Summit Carbon Solutions, the company behind a massive proposed carbon pipeline, was suing Bossly to use his land for the project through eminent domain, which is the taking of private property with compensation to the owner. He gives me a stack of papers about like this, Bossly said, stretching his hands several inches. They started the process of suing us to take our land. Bossly is one of many landowners who were sued by Summit Carbon Solutions as it unleashed a barrage of eminent domain legal actions in South Dakota to obtain land for the nearly $9 billion pipeline spanning five Midwest states. Lee Enterprises and The Associated Press reviewed hundreds of cases, revealing the great lengths the pipeline operator went to get the project built, only to be stymied in South Dakota by a groundswell of opposition from local farmers and landowners. The legal salvo generated so much outrage that South Dakotas governor signed a bill into law in early March that bans the use of eminent domain for building carbon dioxide pipelines, putting the future of the project in doubt. The review found that Summit brought 232 lawsuits against landowners across South Dakota, North Dakota and Iowa including lawsuits seeking access to property for surveys. All 156 of the eminent domain actions were brought in South Dakota. Over the course of two days in late April 2023, the company filed 83 eminent domain lawsuits across the state. Summit spokesperson Sabrina Zenor said the companys priority is voluntary agreements and that the vast majority of easements have been and continue to be secured voluntarily. Condemnation is a legal tool available under the law, but its not our preferred approach, Zenor said. The numbers reflect thatweve reached agreements with thousands of landowners without litigation. The pipeline would span 2,500 miles (4,023-kilometers) across the five states and connect to 57 ethanol plants. The carbon dioxide produced by these plants would be captured and shuttled through the pipeline and ultimately stored underground in North Dakota, reducing carbon emissions and allowing the ethanol producers to market their fuel as less carbon intensive. The project would also allow ethanol producers and Summit to tap into federal tax credits. Summit dispatched representatives to state legislatures, county commissions and regulatory boards to make what seemed like an easy sell in a region where the corn and ethanol industry typically has broad support. But Summits legal actions and encounters with farmers provoked passionate opposition in South Dakota. Some said their first encounter with Summit was looking out the window and spotting surveyors on their land, and that company representatives were quick to threaten litigation. Landowners interviewed by Lee and AP described a range of aggressive financial offers made by Summit during the negotiations. One farmer declined an initial $80,000 offer for a 36-acre easement, and that offer grew to $350,000, which he also refused. Another said he turned down an offer north of $40,000. Bossly, like some other landowners, battled with Summit in court for months to keep the company from surveying his farm in Brown County, a rural farming stretch of northeastern South Dakota. As Bossly tells it, he found out that Summits surveyors had shown up on his property in May 2023 after his wife, home recovering from gallbladder surgery, called him claiming that there were strangers inside the house. (In court filings, Summits surveyors said they knocked several times before walking to a different building.) Bossly eventually turned his tractor around for the slow, 10-mile drive home from a neighbors farm where he had been planting alfalfa. The company accused him of threatening to kill the surveyors over the phone that day. That landed him in court in front of a judge, who had already ordered landowners not to interfere with Summits surveys. But the audience in the courtroom gallery underscored the larger anti-pipeline sentiment brewing in South Dakota: It was packed with farmers rallying in Bosslys defense. Bossly denies that he made the death threat. The backlash ultimately had major political consequences in the state. In last years primary election, a number of incumbent lawmakers were ousted by candidates opposed to the project. It created an odd political dynamic in the region: Farmers in some of the reddest counties in America joining forces with environmentalists to block a pipeline that was designed to cater to a bedrock Republican constituency Midwest corn farmers. Bossly proudly hangs a Donald Trump-JD Vance campaign banner from the ceiling of his shop. They did this all to themselves, Brian Jorde, an attorney representing landowners, said of Summit. Their legal plan was, we will force them into submission because the lawsuits will break them.’ Pipeline backed by the ethanol industry Summits pipeline, first proposed in 2021, is viewed by the Midwest ethanol industry as a potential economic boon. Nearly 40% of the nations corn crop is brewed into ethanol, which is blended into most gasoline sold in the U.S. With the rise of electric vehicles and less of the fuel additive powering cars, some Midwest farmers and the ethanol industry see passenger jet fuel as a potentially huge new market for ethanol. But under current rules, the process for turning ethanol into aviation fuel would need to emit less carbon dioxide to qualify for tax breaks intended to reduce greenhouse gases. Supporters see carbon capture projects such as Summits pipeline as a way to fight climate change and to help the ethanol industry. Carbon capture involves separating carbon dioxide from the emissions of industrial facilities, such as ethanol plants, and pumping it underground where it is stored so it doesnt contribute to climate change. Carbon capture isnt without critics. Some environmentalists question its effectiveness at large scale and say it allows the fossil fuels industry to continue unchanged. Then theres the Midwest farmers who oppose the project, questioning whether the pipeline would be safe in the event of a rupture and saying Summit trampled over their property rights. Taking landowners to court Some South Dakota landowners described troubling moments with Summits representatives. LeRoy Braun, a 69-year-old fifth-generation farmer in Spink County, said that land acquisition people working for Summit threatened to sue him during a March 2023 visit at his property after he refused to sign an easement agreement. Just as they were leaving, they said, Well, if you dont sign, were going to file eminent domain on you and youre going to get nothing compared to what were offering you, Braun said. He said his neighbors described similar interactions. The last time Summits representatives stopped by his property in late April 2023, they indicated that they wanted to continue a dialogue, Braun said. But a few hours after they left a sheriffs deputy served him with condemnation court papers. I just thought, Well, these are the most arrogant, bullying type of people Ive ever dealt with, Braun said. In response to Brauns claim that he was threatened with litigation, Summit spokesperson Zenor said that they dont condone threats or coercion and the company cant confirm the exact wording of the interaction. She added that the timing of the eminent domain lawsuit was not a retaliatory act. Other landowners alleged that Summit had private armed security guards present during surveys. Craig Schaunaman, a farmer in Brown County and a former South Dakota legislator, said that during Summits survey of his land in May 2023, one of two on-site security guards was carrying a holstered pistol. I thought it was uncalled for, Schaunaman said. Zenor said that Schaunamans account is not consistent with our policies or our understanding of what occurred. She added that current policy does not include” armed security. Such views arent uniform among South Dakota farmers. Walt Bones, a fourth-generation farmer in Minnehaha County and a former state secretary of agriculture, strongly supports the project for its potential economic benefits and said that his interactions with Summits representatives, who were interested in his land, were always respectful. South Dakotans who oppose the project were dug-in from the start and spread lies and overblown safety concerns about the pipeline, Bones said. When Summit started filing the condemnation lawsuits in April 2023, many South Dakota landowners, such as Bossly, werent surprised. What Bossly didnt expect was how his run-ins with Summit would galvanize opposition. After the threat allegations were detailed in court documents, Bosslys name was everywhere on television news and across social media. The company wanted a judge to hold him in contempt. During a May 2023 hearing, the judge declined to do so, but said Bossly must not come within 100 yards of Summits surveyors, according to a transcript of the hearing. So Bossly largely stayed confined to the area of his workshop after Summits surveyors hauled large machinery to his South Dakota farmstead on June 20, 2023. Sheriffs deputies were also present. The surveyors spent hours working on his farm. Photos and videos of the incident were posted online and circulated on social media. That day really kicked our opposition movement into gear because thats when we really got support from all over the state, said Ed Fischbach, a farmer in Spink County who helped organize the projects opponents. Even people that this pipeline doesnt even affect were so appalled by what this company was doing that day. As for Bossly, life was different. A farmer who grows alfalfa, rye and other crops, Bossly became a standard bearer for the opposition to Summits pipeline. He was doing media interviews and speaking at public meetings about the project. Bossly got a standing ovation after speaking at a conference of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association a group whose website states that a sheriffs law enforcement power in a county is greater than that of any other official in Las Vegas in 2024. I didnt even know what Zoom was, Bossly said. And now, like, thats two or three nights a week where Im on Zoom with different people across the state or the nation. Summit kept filing eminent domain lawsuits in South Dakota until late August 2023. In seven cases, landowners signed easements after getting sued in condemnation, court records show. But after the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission rejected Summits permit application in September 2023, Summit paused or dismissed the legal actions, Zenor said. Political fallout By the end of 2024, Summit had secured approval for routes in Iowa and North Dakota, a leg in Minnesota and the underground storage. In Iowa, the commissioners who approved Summits route were appointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican with strong backing from the states farming organizations. Although many Iowa landowners opposed the project, powerful groups such as the Iowa Corn Growers Association supported the proposal because of its promise to open new markets for corn-based ethanol. Summit was founded by Bruce Rastetter, a major Iowa donor to Republican political candidates. But Summit faced hurdles in South Dakota, where it still lacked a permit and the state Supreme Court ruled in August that the company had not yet proved that it qualified for eminent domain power. In the November election, South Dakota voters rejected regulations that opponents said would deny local control over such projects and consolidate authority with state regulators. Supporters framed the regulations as a landowner bill of rights. And the composition of the South Dakota Legislature had changed significantly after the 2024 primary, when voters elected new lawmakers who opposed Summits pipeline and its use of eminent domain, said Jim Mehlhaff, the Republican majority leader in the South Dakota Senate and a supporter of the pipeline. Lawmakers also were pressured by Summits vocal opponents to vote for the new eminent domain law, he said. Mehlhaff said that the new law sends a signal that South Dakota is not business friendly. The legislature, you know, at the behest of what I would call the shrill minority, will cut your legs out, he added. The federal governments approach to climate change also has changed dramatically since the pipeline was proposed. While former Democratic President Joe Biden increased tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to encourage carbon capture to slow climate change, Republican President Donald Trump has emphasized the need for more oil and gas drilling and coal mining. Its unclear how Summit will proceed in South Dakota. The company asked state regulators to suspend its permit application timeline. Zenor said the company is focused on advancing the project in states that support investment and innovation but added that Summit continues to believe there is a path forward” in South Dakota. But even some supporters of Summit say the company didnt do itself any favors in South Dakota. Did they get off to a bad start? Did they soil their sheets? No question, absolutely, Bones said. I mean, I wouldnt argue that a bit. This story is a collaboration between Lee Enterprises and The Associated Press. Eric Ferkenhoff/Lee Enterprises and Josh Kelety/AP AP writer Scott McFetridge contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
I have to admit that Im a natural born sucker (in more than one sense, some would argue, and they will be right). I have an irresistible inclination to put things in my mouth to see how they taste, which is why today Im glad I dont have a Nintendo Switch. Apparently, Nintendo has coated the Switchs thumb-size game cartridges with a demonic, bitter compound known as denatonium benzoate since it launched its handheld console in 2017. And it has done it again with the Switch 2s new $70 cartridges. The human body has a natural aversion to bitter tastes. Its a survival mechanism product of millions of years of evolution. Many poisonous substances in nature are bitter, so animals developed a sense of disgust for the flavor. Some humans were able to overcome this to willingly intoxicate themselves with gin and tonics, yes, but bitterness turns out to be a great way to deter kids from ingesting harmful substances and potential choking hazards. Which is why Nintendo decided to dip its games in this inert, nontoxic chemical. Marketed under the brand name Bitrex, denatonium benzoate is the worlds most bitter compound, 1,000 times more intense than quininethe compound that gives tonic water its bite. While quinine becomes detectable at 0.77 parts per million, Bitrex registers at just 0.05 parts per million. This means that a single 1-milligram drop of this substance can make an entire liter of water absolutely inedible. Nintendo uses concentrations of 1050 ppm, ensuring immediate, overwhelming disgust. What does Bitrex taste like? Bitrex has a long track record. Its origin story traces back to 1958, when Edinburgh-based pharmaceutical firm T. & H. Smith stumbled upon it while researching local anesthetics derived from lidocaine. The compounds name blends bitter and the Latin rex (king), cementing its status as the undisputed monarch of aversion. Initially used to denature industrial alcohol, its applications exploded by the 1970s as a safety additive in household cleaners, automotive fluids like antifreeze and windshield washer (which apparently taste sweet without this additive), pesticides, and even cables, where it gets applied to avoid rodents from chewing on them. Today, it is still widely used in those products and others like marker pens, liquid laundry packets, and cosmetics like nail polish. The sensory experience is a sharp, lingering bitterness devoid of any other flavor, designed to trigger instant rejection. The bitterness of coffee, pure chocolate, or medications like antibiotics taste like candy compared to a Switch cartridge. I licked an original Switch game once. Never again, Switch 2 producer Kouichi Kawamoto told Gamespot. We dont want anybody to be at risk of unwanted consumption, Switch 2 director Takuhiro Dohta told the gaming outlet. But while the Japanese company has doubled down on this compound for the Switch 2s cartridges, most toy manufacturers dont rely on taste aversion to avoid choking hazards. Instead, brands adhere to size regulations, which establish that parts must be over 1.25 inches in toys targeted at kids 3 years old and younger. Companies like Lego took a structural approach to avoid the effect of potential ingestion with its minifigure heads. From 1978 to 1992, the iconic minifigs featured solid studs on the top of their heads but the company redesigned them with hollow, three-armed lattices to create air passagesa move that mirrored BICs pen cap safety holes. The logic was simple: If a child swallowed a head, airflow might prevent suffocation. By 2010, however, Lego abandoned the design, claiming that the tiny holes were ineffective for breathing, which is suspicious to say the least (some people say online it was all a matter of cutting down costs, as the design was more expensive to make than the regular heads). But I digress. Having learned all this, Im surprised that there are not more toys that use denatonium benzoate. Why do I know this? I told you, Im a natural born sucker and none of the toys Ive ever had or my kid was bitter. While adults might instinctively avoid mouthing cartridges, toddlers are always at risk. The potential for choking for little kids lurks around many homes, as there could be older siblings with toys that have smaller parts even if the toddlers toys are too big to be ingested. Frankly, as a parent, Im surprised they dont sell 5-gallon Bitrex sprays at Walmart to coat the entire bloody house with it.
Category:
E-Commerce
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