Lululemon

Oct 15, 2022

Lululemon is a Canadian fashion retailer founded in 1998 in Vancouver, Canada, by Chip Wilson. The multinational clothing-retail company creates athletic apparel for yoga, running, working out, and more.

Lululemon is headquartered in British Columbia and wants to inspire you to live #thesweatlife. It's widely known for its high-end yoga-focused clothing collections.

Lululemon also makes run clothes now available in countries all over the world. It aims to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness and help people live longer, healthier, fun lives.

Lululemon operates more than 600 stores and has 29,000 employees in stores, factories, logistics, brands, and subsidiaries across the world.

Lululemon is driving meaningful, positive change in the world. It creates value in its communities through movement, mindfulness, and connection.

Lululemon is on a journey to address social and environmental barriers to collective well-being. It has a holistic approach to impact across three pillars that address the interconnection of products, people, and the planet.

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Sustainability Rating: 5/10

Rating FAQ

Category: Clothing, accessories, bags

For: Women, men

Type: Basics, knitwear, activewear, underwear, loungewear, swimwear, outerwear

Style: Casual

Quality: Medium

Prices: $$

Sizes: 2XS-2XL, 0-18 (US), 2-20 (UK), 32-52 (EU), 2-20 (AU)

Fabrics: Cotton, linen, jute, lyocell, modal, viscose, acetate, polyester, nylon, spandex, polyethylene, polypropylene, acrylic, polyurethane, rubber, leather, wool, silk, down

100% Organic: No

100% Vegan: No

Ethical & Fair: No

Recycling: Yes

Producing countries: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, El Salvador, Egypt, Haiti, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United States, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Vietnam

Certifications: GRS, FSC, RDS, BCI, Oeko-Tex, Bluesign

Sustainability Practices

Lululemon takes wide-ranging measures to protect biodiversity, reduce its consumption of water, energy, and other resources, avoid waste, and combat climate change.

It wants to be better and more efficient by looking at every aspect of its value chain to ensure the healthy functioning of our planet. However, the majority of its business remains detrimental to the environment.

Lululemon only uses a tiny proportion of organic materials, such as organic cotton, or recycled materials, such as recycled polyester and regenerated nylon.

Most of the fabrics it uses are either natural without relevant certifications, such as regular cotton or linen, or synthetic petroleum-based fibers such as polyester, nylon, acrylic, and more.

Lululemon also uses a small proportion of semi-synthetic fibers or regenerated cellulosic fabrics such as Tencel lyocell, modal, acetate, and viscose.

Tencel is an eco-friendly fiber made with wood pulp from certified sustainable forests. But only a tiny proportion of the materials used by Lululemon are environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Lululemon publishes a list of all its manufacturers and processing facilities on its corporate website. It aims to create and build upon safe, healthy, and equitable environments with its suppliers and manufacturing partners.

The 2022 Fashion Transparency Index gave Lululemon a score of 52% based on how much the company discloses about its social and environmental policies, practices, and impacts.

Lululemon manufactures its clothes in Turkey and many other East Asian countries, where human rights and labor law violations happen every day.

The Canadian clothing retailer doesn't show any labor certification standard that would ensure good working conditions, decent living wages, health, safety, and other crucial rights for workers in its supply chain.

Lululemon has a code of conduct that applies to all its suppliers and subcontractors based on the regulations set by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Lululemon assesses compliance with its Code of Conduct by informal visits or third-party audits with or without notice. It works with international and local unions and NGOs to improve the working conditions in its factories.

Lululemon doesn't use exotic animal skin, hair, fur, or angora. But it uses leather, wool, silk, and down feathers to manufacture many of its clothing pieces.

These animal-derived materials are cruel and unethical. They also harm the environment by producing greenhouse gases and waste. More sustainable alternatives exist.

Sustainability Goals

Lululemon has committed to having all relevant supplier sites implement approved science-based aligned targets by 2025. Suppliers also have the option to adopt a 50% absolute target by 2030 and a net-zero target by 2050.

Lululemon plans an absolute reduction of its GHG emissions by 60% in all owned and operated facilities (Scope 1 and 2) by 2030 and 60% in the purchased goods and services (Scope 3) by 2030 compared to 2018.

Lululemon aims to make 100% of its products with sustainable materials and end-of-use solutions to advance a circular ecosystem by 2030. It will achieve at least 75% sustainable materials for its products by 2025.

Lululemon plans to launch alternative nylon solutions, source at least 75% recycled polyester, and source 100% of cotton from more sustainable sources by 2025.

Lululemon has a goal of reducing freshwater use intensity with its priority
wet process suppliers by at least 20% by 2025. It will also reduce single-use plastic packaging by at least 50% per unit by 2025.

Buy Here

Discover Lululemon's sustainable collections at Lululemon.com.

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What We're Up Against

Multinational corporations overproducing cheap products in the poorest countries.
Huge factories with sweatshop-like conditions underpaying workers.
Media conglomerates promoting unethical, unsustainable products.
Bad actors encouraging overconsumption through oblivious behavior.
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