How Toy Giant Hasbro's Culture Contributes to Global Sustainability

It’s apparent the world has a plastic problem, from the 2.6 million tons of plastic debris flowing from rivers into the world’s oceans to the various forms of the transparent refuse that end up in landfills. According to the EPA, Americans created about 14.7 million tons of plastic containers and packaging waste in 2015 alone, which accounted for 5.5% of all municipal solid waste (MSW). The percentage recycled increased from 9% in 2000 to 14.6% in 2015, but more than two-thirds still ended up in landfills.

Many manufacturers are taking this dilemma seriously and making sustainability a top priority. For the last six years, leading toymaker Hasbro has attempted to mitigate the environmental impact its plastic packaging has had. In 2013 the Providence-based company known for manufacturing Mr. Potato Head and Transformers switched from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which release potentially dangerous dioxins, to the more easily recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Three years later the move was made to post-consumer recycled (rPET) and just last year, Hasbro started using bioPET, which is made with plant-based materials.

Now, after all those iterations, and associated supply chain shifting, equipment changeouts, and countless hours of engineering and training, they’re scrapping the whole plan for an even bolder move: They’ve decided to phase out plastics altogether in their packaging, beginning in 2020!  The company is dedicated to making packaging really sustainable and completely recyclable, but they also realized in doing all their research, that recycling doesn’t always happen. Based on their culture and principle “to avoid using unnecessary material” and “reduce environmental impact” in packaging, removing plastic all together seemed the most logical action.

By 2022, the company plans to remove everything from the shrink-wrap encasing Monopoly and Operation game boxes to the polybags inside holding the game pieces, along with the blister packages imprisoning Avengers and Transformers action figures and thin plastic window sheets on Super Soaker boxes. This will only affect new products, not the ones currently on shelves. Two out of every three Hasbro products are new, so the effects should be visible quite quickly.

“We have a very talented team of packaging engineers and designers who are exploring a variety of options for each type of product we create,” Kathrin Belliveau, Hasbro Senior Vice President Government, Regulatory Affairs and CSR told NBC’s Today Show in an October interview. “We look forward to sharing more details, including mockups, in the coming months and years as we continue on our journey.”

The move is part of a broad strategy Hasbro been executing for the last 10 years, Belliveau says. Those marching orders can be summed up as, “Leave the world a better place for children and their families” and “doing the right thing,” she says.  That’s the legacy of the Hasbro founders, the Hassenfeld Brothers, and it’s as embedded in the culture as child-like imagination.

“Sustainability is one of our core values,” Belliveau says. “Doing good to do well is really who we are and everyone we hire has that mindset. Getting people to buy into our values is very easy for us.”

The toy company is very serious about continuously reducing the environmental impact of its production and supply chain. Almost 99% of their entire electrical use across their facilities was balanced by buying 24,861 MWh of renewable energy certificates (RECs), while 90% of their product packaging came from recycled material or sustainably managed forests. They also have a program set up with a recycling company called TerraCycle to convert old toys into building materials for playgrounds and park benches. Hasbro has also teamed with Amazon to create Frustration-Free Packaging, which cut the packaging material for Baby Alive dolls purchased online by 50%.

But - how do you talk even the most devout eco-friendly corporation into such a bold move in such a short amount of time? Hasbro believes they must build buy-in at all levels of the company, but first and foremost, the teams that actually have to execute must make sure they understand why are they doing this, how it aligns with the greater business model and core business, and ultimately present this to C-Suite leadership and get them to embrace it.

But perhaps most importantly, after those steps, the entire company must become cheerleaders for the cause, even while recognizing the complexities, and believe the move is a win-win. If Belliveau and the C-Suite are the only ones touting a green project’s merits, that’s a recipe for failure.

“Sustainability initiatives, to be successful, they can’t be driven out of a corporate office, they really do have to be embraced by the entire organization,” Belliveau says.