Danish toy company the Lego Group has signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park Joint Venture Company (VSIP) to establish a new $1bn carbon-neutral manufacturing facility in Binh Duong province, Vietnam. The new plant will be located on a 44-hectare site and is expected to create up to 4,000 new jobs by 2036. Construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2022, with production due to commence in 2024.

Lego Group chief operations officer Carsten Rasmussen explained in a company press release: “We are very grateful for the support of the Vietnamese government in helping us achieve our ambition to build our first carbon-neutral factory. Its plans to invest in expanding renewable energy production infrastructure and a collaborative approach to working with foreign companies who are seeking to make high-quality investments were among the factors in our decision to build here.”

The new facility will feature solar panels on its roof and will be fully powered by a new solar project being built by VSIP. The Lego Group and VSIP plan to plant 50,000 trees in Vietnam to compensate for the removal of vegetation during construction of the plant.

The new facility will strengthen the company’s supply chain network and will be the Lego Group’s sixth manufacturing site globally and second in Asia.