Stand.earth: lululemon’s latest sustainability report reflects more empty talk and little meaningful action

lululemon’s latest Impact Report reveals another year of staggering growth in emissions with no meaningful action to curb it, as the company prioritized rapid growth in profits at the cost of the environment.

Until lululemon makes a public commitment and starts actively transitioning its suppliers to renewable energy, its rapid growth and plan to double profits by 2026 will continue to result in more fossil fuels being burned, more climate pollution, and more negative air quality impacts.

In the past year, lululemon reported a shocking 20% increase in its manufacturing emissions. Since making hollow commitments to its climate targets in 2019, emissions have more than doubled. Meanwhile, the devastating impacts of climate change have become impossible to ignore. It’s time for the company to stop talking and start acting.

“It’s incredibly disappointing to see lululemon let another year go by without taking meaningful action on climate change,” said Rachel Kitchin, corporate climate campaigner with international environmental nonprofit Stand.earth, which has demanded that lululemon take responsibility for its emissions and live up to its environmental image. “Increasing its supply chain emissions by 20%, while people around the world experience the devastating impacts of climate breakdown first hand, is hardly acting with ‘urgency and intention.’ We would love to see lululemon pursue its climate commitments with as much intention as it does its growth targets.”

In one bright spot, the report reiterated lululemon’s commitment to phasing out the use of coal in on-site boilers at factories, and reflected its focus on electrification as a solution. However, while Stand.earth commends the incremental progress that’s been made in phasing out coal for on-site boilers, the company needs to move faster on implementation. Clean renewable alternatives are ready and available.

Earlier this year, Lululemon scored a ‘C-’ in Stand.earth’s Fossil Free Fashion Scorecard, which evaluated the company’s performance in taking steps to deploy renewable energy in its supply chain, how its climate targets stack up against others, its state of progress in transitioning from fossil fuel based fabrics to low-carbon materials, and its actions to reduce fossil-fuel pollution from shipping.

In order to meet its climate targets and live up to the image of sustainability it attempts to project, lululemon must act now to transition its factories to 100% renewable energy by 2030.

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Media contacts:

Cari Barcas, communications director, cari.barcas@stand.earth, +1 312 720 7940 (Pacific Time)