Some hopeful words from Lululemon on its climate plans – but when will we see the action (plan)? 

Lululemon’s latest Impact Report, released on September 18, shows that the athleisure giant is responding to growing public pressure to phase out fossil fuels and align its climate action with its values – but it doesn’t go far enough. 

In the end, the devil’s in the details. Lululemon has been quiet about the specifics of its goals and pathway to achieving climate progress, but given the company’s growth trajectory, what it has shared publicly so far doesn’t stack up against its ever-increasing manufacturing pollution. With the company’s Climate Plan slated to come out in the next few months, the company still needs to fill in the gaps and put substance over showmanship.

A greener “vision”

The encouraging news is that for the first time, Lululemon has published a specific milestone for phasing out coal and transitioning 25% of its “core” suppliers to renewable electricity by 2025. 

While this is an important milestone, 2025 is only three months away, and Lululemon’s Impact Report lacked specifics on how the company will realize it. This milestone still leaves us with the question: Will Lululemon’s supply chain be sustainable by 2030? 

Furthermore, the details of how it plans to shift to clean electricity matter to prove that it can meet the milestone and to show that it’s making sure that the transition doesn’t disadvantage workers or manufacturers. A detailed roadmap and greater transparency are still needed in its current and longer-term climate transition. 

Lululemon has been vocal about participating in the Aii Climate Fund and other initiatives to help manufacturers in the clean energy transition. These are great starting points for moving the needle on this issue. However, its current focus on “identifying and financially supporting participation in training and programs” misses the mark on funding the significant capital investments needed. Because fair financing continues to be one of the most critical barriers to manufacturers’ climate action, phasing out coal-fired boilers or investing in solar panels can be prohibitively expensive for manufacturers. Yet, these kinds of investments are critical to cutting emissions. So, to ensure Lululemon’s climate plan is credible, much more detail is needed on the delivery of financing options to support a fossil fuel phase-out. 

The question of who pays for Lululemon’s climate action still seems heavily weighted toward the suppliers—and ultimately the workers—who make its products. Lululemon does note that it is “evaluating collaborative financing options that could further support carbon-reduction projects”—this kind of specifics is essential for its plan to seem credible.

Another essential—and currently missing—detail is how the renewable electricity will be sourced. While it’s encouraging that Lululemon acknowledges that it needs to prioritize direct renewable electricity over electricity “credits” (RECs)—a kind of renewable electricity offset that does little to cut emissions—it still hasn’t reported on how its electricity is sourced now or set a detailed plan for the future. An action plan to prioritize direct renewable electricity is vital for the company to realize a full and fair fossil fuel phase-out.

A mixed story on climate emissions

One of Lululemon’s big news stories from this report is that in the last year, it finally started to flatten the curve on its ballooning emissions, but when you look more closely, the story is far more muddled.

While Lululemon reported an overall slight dip in the total emissions that it includes in its targets, its emissions from manufacturing (Scope 3 category 1) increased by nearly 20% in just one year. That’s an even more considerable increase than the previous year, which is alarming considering the company’s rapid growth. So, looking closer, Scope 3 Category 1 emissions—where the majority of emissions are produced and are the number one cause of fashion pollution—are still on the rise. 

On the other hand, emissions from shipping goods dropped by nearly one-third, which helped keep the company’s overall emissions flat. Lululemon says that this resulted from switching some logistics away from aviation – the most carbon-intensive method – back toward marine shipping. This is good news because research from earlier this year found that Lululemon had one of the highest rates of aviation logistics among major global brands, so it is optimistic that the company has taken note of this concern and is starting to take action, and we need to see it continue this journey towards zero-emission shipping.

Next Steps

The Stand.earth community has advocated for nearly three years for Lululemon to transition to 100% renewable energy across its manufacturing and phase out harmful fossil fuels like coal from its supply chain. This milestone and the reduction in shipping emissions show that Lululemon is listening. However, with absolute emissions from making its products still rising sharply alongside its ambitious growth trajectory, the company still has work to prove that it is not greenwashing. 

Lululemon says it plans to publish a full Climate Plan in the coming months – we’ll be looking for it to fill in all the missing steps in its pathway to cut coal by 2030 and show that its green claims are more than just surface-level.