As your kids grow up, it can be hard to find a new home for their old toys. But this week Mattel has announced the PlayBack programme in the US and Canada, where it will recycle old Barbies, Matchbox and MEGA toys and use the materials to make new ones. There is no charge for sending your toys, and people who want to participate can download and print a free shipping label, or order one over the phone. If a success Mattel will expand the range of toys it accepts to its other brands.

The initiative is set to help the company achieve its goal of using 100% recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastic materials by 2030, and it follows on from Mattel's other efforts to become more sustainable. Mattel has already launched two Fisher-Price toys made from bio-based plastics, and next year is set to release the Matchbox Tesla Roadster, its first die-cast vehicle made from 99% recycled materials, which will be carbon neutral-certified.

Mattel is just one of many firms trying to reduce their carbon footprint, cut plastic waste and make their products more sustainable. As pollution from fossil fuels caused 8.7 million deaths globally in 2018 alone, these steps are more important than ever. Click or scroll through to see how some of the planet's biggest businesses are working to change the planet.

All dollar amounts in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

Google’s parent company and one of the most powerful corporations in the world, Alphabet Inc has also been named as one of the most eco-friendly. That’s according to the 2020 Carbon Clean 200 list created by As You Sow, a non-profit which promotes corporate accountability. All offices and company buildings, including Google HQ in Silicon Valley (pictured), are powered by 100% renewable energy, which removes an estimated five million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. The company also issued the largest corporate sustainability bond in history in August, with all proceeds from the $5.75 billion (£4.21bn) injection going towards supporting environmental and social initiatives.

With some recycled materials being present in three-quarters of its products, Nike is an industry trailblazer for sustainability. The Nike Air range of trainers uses at least 50% recycled materials and diverts more than 95% of waste from landfills, while its newest SB Dunk sneakers have had a vegan makeover and feature animal-free leather (pictured). Nike powers 100% of its North American operations with renewable energy and is looking to do the same across its global operations by 2025. Plus, the company has launched a "move to zero" initiative, which has set the goal of reducing carbon emissions across its global supply chain by 30% by 2030. 

The parent company of the Johnson’s, Aveeno and Neutrogena brands, Johnson & Johnson has committed to making sure all packaging is recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. Its operations are currently powered by 35% renewable energy, a figure it plans to increase to 100% by 2050.

Japanese firm Mitsubishi's division Mitsubishi Electric has earned its sustainable stripes through ambitious commitments set out in its Environmental Vision 2021, which it aims to realise this year. The plan includes reducing total carbon dioxide output by 30% by bringing manufacturing emissions down to zero and significantly reducing emissions from power generation. Mitsubishi is also striving for a zero-waste output across its production processes. 

The company that brought us Activia yoghurts, Evian water and Alpro plant-based food and drinks, Danone is making big strides in sustainability. In the US, it has reduced soil degradation and helped dairy farmers reduce their water usage. Plus, it’s started using maize-derived poly-lactic acid (PLA) packaging for its Activia yoghurts. Right now, more than 80% of Danone North America’s packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable, which the company plans to rollout out worldwide by 2025. Danone has also signed deals with sustainable energy providers in recent years, including Enel Green Power in Texas in the US, which will provide the company with wind-generated energy, and Iberdrola, which will supply solar-powered electricity across its Spanish operations.

In 2019 Microsoft upped its internal carbon emissions fee to $15 (£11) per metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions, which comes into effect this year. Alongside this the tech company has unveiled a plan to become "carbon negative" by 2030, meaning it will take more carbon out of the atmosphere than it emits. And by 2050 Microsoft plans to have removed all of the carbon from the environment that it has ever emitted since 1975. In order to achieve this it has planned for its new buildings to run entirely on renewables, with the Microsoft ‘corporate campus’ aiming to be entirely zero-waste too. AI will play a key part in its sustainability initiatives for other businesses and organisations too, including helping minimise the environmental costs of farming, forecasting climate-related risks such as wildfires, planting trees, protecting endangered species and more.

Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever is paving the way for reusable and recyclable packaging, thanks to its scheme with e-commerce platform LOOP, introduced in 2019. Under the system, brands including Dove, Sure, Lynx, Rexona, Seventh Generation, Signal and REN Clean Skincare are being sold in refillable stainless steel and glass packaging, so that you'll be able to hold onto product containers and refill them. Other progress so far includes developing recyclable paper Carte d’Or ice cream tubs and Dove using 100% recycled plastic bottles where feasible. Unilever has committed to halving its use of virgin plastic by 2025 by reducing its use of plastic packaging and increasing its use of recycled plastic.

In 2019, Best Buy was named on Fortune’s Change the World list of companies making a positive environmental impact. The electronics firm has been encouraging customers to buy more efficient products, helping them save on their energy bills while cutting their carbon footprint. It has also committed to help customers reduce carbon emissions by 20% and save $5 billion (£4bn) on utility costs by 2030, while working towards achieving carbon neutrality itself by 2040.

In 2018 LEGO launched its first sustainable bricks, made from sugarcane-based plastic. It’s a first step in the right direction, as the company has set the goal of making all its products from sustainable materials by 2030. What’s more, in May 2019 the LEGO Group reached its goal of being 100% powered by renewable energy, three years ahead of schedule, and hopes to make all of its packaging from renewable or recycled materials by 2025.

The fashion industry is hardly renowned for its sustainability – but companies such as Kering are trying to change that. The conglomerate, which owns Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen, came seventh in the Corporate Knights Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations list for 2021. Its strategy includes reducing carbon emissions by half by 2025, optimising energy efficiency at its textile plants, and offsetting emissions through a programme that conserves biodiverse forests.

Toymaker Hasbro has pledged to remove almost all plastic from new product packaging by 2022, which is a pretty big step given how prevalent the material is in the industry. Currently more than 90% of Hasbro’s paper and cardboard packaging comes from recycled material or sources supporting responsible forestry. Hasbro is also pushing to make the toys themselves more environmentally friendly, including the recent launch of Mr Potato Head Goes Green, which is the company’s first plant-based plastic toy. By 2025, Hasbro plans to reduce energy consumption by 25%, halve the amount of waste it sends to landfill, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one-fifth. 

Packaging is a bugbear for people, with a third of those in the US and just over half of those in the UK favouring a tax on plastic food packaging, according to a survey by Ingredient Communications. Tetra Pak’s cartons are made from 75% cardboard, which can be separated and recycled – along with 20% plastic and 5% aluminium, which are harder to recycle. The brand is working to transform PolyAl (the polymer and aluminium mix) into raw materials to be used by the plastics industry, and its packaging will be fully recyclable by 2025.

The retail conglomerate which owns Old Navy, Banana Republic and, of course, Gap, has stated it will source all cotton from sustainable sources by 2025. Gap also launched the ‘Gap for Good’ platform, including a pop-up shop in New York in 2017, where customers were able to buy upcycled and updated Gap denim in order to raise awareness of clothing wastage.

The aviation industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped leading aerospace company Boeing from committing to huge steps to improve its carbon footprint. Currently only blends of up to 50% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and 50% conventional jet fuel are certified for use in aircraft, but the US airline announced in January that its entire fleet would be 100% reliant on biofuel by 2030. This is no small undertaking for Boeing, with jet system alterations, fuel-blending requirement changes and global safety certification all needing to be in place before the idea can really get off the ground.

Another big player in the gas-guzzling industry has also upped its sustainability goals this year, as General Motors (GM) announced plans to phase out all petrol- and diesel-fuelled vehicles by 2035, shifting entirely to electric vehicles in the next 15 years. This will be a drastic change from GM’s current production lines as, out of 2.55 million vehicles sold in America in 2020, only 20,000 were electric. The company also announced its intention to power all its US sites with 100% renewable energy by 2035 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. 

Tesla produced its one-millionth electric car in March last year, making it the first electric vehicle manufacturer to do so, and its vehicles have so far prevented more than 3.6 million tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere in the US alone. As part of its plan to increase global battery capacity and make electric cars cheaper, in September last year Tesla announced it is expanding its battery capacity by 10% at its Gigafactory in Nevada. The building is completely powered by renewable energy.

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Greenpeace named Apple as the most eco-friendly tech firm in the world for three years running between 2015-2017. Its 14 final assembly plants in China are all completely zero-waste, and in April 2018 it was announced that the company was entirely powered by renewable energy. Apple is currently working to expand its global recycling programmes, with robots such as ‘Daisy’ (pictured) being used to disassemble old products so they can be turned into something new. In July 2020, the tech giant also promised that it would fully carbon-neutral by 2030, a goal it hopes to achieve through low-carbon product designs, using renewable energy and planting forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Aiming to turn the tide on plastic, computing giant Dell partnered with environmental foundation Lonely Whale in 2017 to launch the NextWave Plastics initiative. The scheme, collaborating with scientists, global companies and non-government organisations, searches for uses for plastic that would have entered the sea. As a result, Dell committed to making its plastic trays in laptop boxes from 25% ocean plastic and 75% other recycled plastics, diverting 16,000lb (7,250kg) of plastic from oceans. In 2020, Dell reported that 85% of the material in its packaging was recycled or renewable, and the computer company hopes to scale this up to 100% by 2030.

 

Last year the Swedish furniture behemoth hit its target to make more than 98% of the wood used in its products either Forestry Stewardship Council-certified or recycled. And in October it trialled a scheme to buy back used furniture from customers in selected stores across several markets including the UK, Portugal and Australia, offering vouchers for up to 50% of the item’s original price, which can be redeemed in store. The “Buy Back” initiative launched on Black Friday and items were either resold or recycled. It's since been made a permanent scheme across all stores in the UK and Australia, but it's not on offer in the US as yet. IKEA has also opened its first "energy positive" store in Adelaide, Australia, which generates more renewable energy than it uses. IKEA has pledged to be entirely carbon positive by 2030, by reducing more greenhouse emmissions than it actually emits, while continuing to expand its global operations. 

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Coffee pod sales rose significantly in 2020. In fact, Nespresso, which is owned by Nestlé, reported that it was adding 10 new production lines to one of its factories to keep up with demand as people seek out their caffeine fix at home. In an attempt to tackle the rising number of discarded coffee pods, Nestlé joined in a UK-wide scheme run by non-profit Podback, which will allow the used containers to be recycled more easily. Launching this year, it will be possible to leave the pods at 6,500 Yodel drop-off points across the UK.

Clothing retailer H&M was recognised on the CDP A List last year for its commitments towards sustainability. The company, which also owns Cos, & Other Stories, Monki and Weekday, has said that in 2021 nearly 70% of its products will be made from recycled or sustainably-sourced materials, while it’s committed to using 100% recycled or sustainably-sourced materials by 2030. The fashion firm has also had a garment collection and recycling scheme in place since 2013, which is the largest of its kind in the world. H&M’s latest foray into sustainable products is its bottle2fashion project, and in December 2020 a new childrenswear collection was announced that uses polyester made from 71 tonnes of plastic bottle waste taken from the shores of Indonesia.

Danish shipping company Maersk hit headlines in early 2019 when it launched the largest ever eco-friendly shipping pilot. Powered by biofuel made from used cooking oil, the cargo ship’s maiden voyage saw it travel from Rotterdam in the Netherlands to Shanghai in China and back in July 2019, saving an estimated 1.5 million kg of carbon dioxide. In June 2020, Maersk also announced it would be spearheading a $60 million (£44m) research centre to reduce carbon emissions across the shipping industry. The firm aims to be carbon neutral by 2050, and biofuels and funding research are two of the ways in which it may achieve this.

UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has earned its sustainability badge after pledging to halve its plastic usage by 2025. In 2019, the company reported using 120,000 tonnes of plastic packaging per year but has said that it will meet this goal by introducing refillable packaging, switching to alternative materials and using lighter-weight plastics. It is working with Greenpeace to achieve its target, although it currently ranks fifth in the NGO’s plastic league table, having only reduced its plastic by 33% in the last year. From 21 May this year all stores in England, including Sainsbury's, will have to charge 10p for single-use plastic shopping bags, after the government changed legislation. Before only stores with more than 250 or more employees had to impose a charge of 5p for plastic bags; after this was imposed in 2015 the number of single-use plastic bags distributed by supermarkets fell by 95%, so the new changes are expected to have an impact.

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