Hey, lululemon… We’re still waiting!

When did you first discover that lululemon wasn’t the green-hearted angel it claims to be, but actually a fossil fashion darling?

For us, it was about a year and a half ago, when we did some digging and found out that lulu’s leggings were 95% fossil fuel-powered, and the company had no plans to do anything about it.

Flash forward eighteen months, we’ve had a groundswell of support from the yoga community, incredible actions and protests, and tens of thousands of calls to action from everyone from customers to yoga teachers to athletes. But although they have been showing signs of moving, there’s still been no commitment from lululemon.

Lululemon has heard the noise and knows it has a problem.

The company has grown its sustainability team, claims investments in renewable energy at a factory in Vietnam, made commitments to reduce the carbon impact of its materials, and has been actively talking up its climate work behind the scenes. 

Last year the company announced a $10 million one-off funding donation to the Apparel Impact Institute to help suppliers cut emissions, including through clean energy. It’s a start, but it only comes to just 0.12% of its $8.2 BILLION in 2022 revenue. 

But that big commitment? We’re still waiting.

It matters because even as lulu’s profits have soared, so have its negative environmental impacts – without the investment in climate action to match. The vast majority of lululemon’s products are made in Global South and heavily coal-reliant countries, from Bangladesh to Vietnam and China. That means that the same workers and communities who are making those famous leggings – chosen for their cheap labour – are breathing coal-polluted air and experiencing the worst impacts of climate change. 

As a community, we’ve come so far in pushing lululemon to take accountability for the pollution from its factories and the harm to workers and their communities that make its clothes, and we deserve to celebrate.

This September 14th, we’ll be hosting a Block Party outside of lululemon’s headquarters in Vancouver to celebrate how far we’ve come and all the amazing work of the coal kickers! We’ll also be inviting lululemon’s CEO, Calvin McDonald, to personally attend and accept a petition signed by nearly 50,000 community members asking him to make a bold environmental commitment – and handing him the opportunity to do it right then and there!

lululemon has all the information, money and influence it needs to be the climate leader it should be – so why wait?! 

JOIN THE BLOCK PARTY ON SEPTEMBER 14TH from 11am to 2:30pm for free food, movement classes, live music, and more.