Mon 01 Nov 2021 | by Rob Hutchins

COP26 | LEGO presents Building Instructions for a Better Planet to world leaders

As the world’s attention now turns towards Glasgow with this week’s grand opening of COP26, consumer brands from across the industries have been detailing their efforts and reiterating their goals for helping the planet reach its Paris Agreement ambition of 1.5C. Among them, the children’s toy maker LEGO has launched its own ten Building Instructions for a Better World, a new initiative to inform leaders what young people think should happen if we’re all to tackle the climate crisis and create a more sustainable future. Taking on the look and feel of LEGO’s well-recognisable building instructions, these ten requests of policy makers have been identified through research with children from across the globe, helping to give young people a greater voice in the debate on climate change. The campaign was launched ahead of the opening of COP26, the UN’s Climate Change Conference of the Parties that is now underway in Glasgow. During the conference, key sustainability influencers and decision makers will come together to work towards accelerating action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

It is hoped that the LEGO Building Instructions – which will be handed over to policy makers at the event – will help remind leaders to place children at the forefront of discussions. Developed as part of the LEGO Group’s Build the Change programme, the ten building instructions are based on research and workshops with over 6,000 eight to 18 year olds worldwide. The research found that 48 per cent of children think about the environment once a week, with 11 per cent thinking about it daily. In fact, it revealed that global warming is now the number one children’s concern when thinking about the planet and people. It uncovered that 68 per cent of children want a job that will not harm the environment and 51 per cent want to pursue a career that actively improves the environment. Findings also suggest that caregivers and teachers are seen as the greatest influencers of children on environmental attitudes, but that children are missing positive role models from world leaders. It suggests that as children get older, they are increasingly more frustrated by what they see as governmental and societal inaction and poor example setting. With that said, 60 per cent of children believe it’s not too late to save the planet – if we make changes now. Tim Brooks, VP of Environmental Responsibility at the LEGO Group, said: “At the LEGO Group, we’re working hard to play our part in building a sustainable future and creating a better world for our children to inherit. “We have joined forces with young people across the globe to develop the Building Instructions for a Better World, giving children a voice and making sure their voice is heard by world leaders during COP26 – one of the most important climate summits of our time. “Children are demanding that they and future generations are front of mind when it comes to creating policy, and that policy makers and businesses all make the shift to longer-term thinking and commitments to change. This is how we’ll inspire and empower the children of today to become the builders of tomorrow.” Build the Change is the LEGO Group’s flagship learning through play programme for sustainability education. This will also be the theme for the LEGO Group’s presence at COP26 in Glasgow where the company is running a series of events at Strathclyde University. As well as those, LEGO will also be hosting workshops for nearby schools, with a range of circular economy and biodiversity themed events for children to participate in. A series of talks geared towards the younger generation, in which speakers will discuss the importance of learning through play will also be held. Young journalists from the Creative Bravery Collective will also be invited to report on the workshops and interview speakers to be included in a daily digital newspaper produced by the Brave Newspaper for the duration of the summit. Multiple events in Glasgow and Edinburgh LEGO Stores will also be running, including challenges for children to conceptualise solutions to biodiversity challenges using LEGO Bricks. LEGO Store staff will be specially trained in having relevant conversations with the children taking part in these Build the Change challenges. The best builds will be exhibited in store during COP26, available to view from today.