Why Lululemon has Dropped Some of its Sustainability Targets

Athletic apparel company Lululemon operates 767 stores around the world. 

Its sustainability is led by Noel Kinder, previously Nike’s Chief Sustainability Officer, who was welcomed by Lululemon as Senior Vice President of Sustainability in May 2025. 

The company has released its 2024 Impact Report with transparent progress on its sustainability goals.

Lululemon has adjusted and dropped some of its targets and made progress in a variety of areas.

“At lululemon, our commitment to create positive change has guided our impact work over the past five years and continues to shape everything we do,” says Calvin McDonald, CEO at Lululemon, in the report’s introduction. 

“We operate our business with integrity and purpose, and remain focused on advancing impact in the areas of greatest relevance to our company and guests, and where we can deliver the most meaningful results.”

Noel says: “Our FY24 Impact Report results demonstrate the collective dedication and learnings of our teams across the organisation and the power of collaboration in driving transformative change. 

“We are pleased with our progress over the past year, and as we launch our Impact Agenda 2030, we are focused on where we can make the most significant impact, recognising the path forward will demand continued innovation, resilience and deep partnership across the value chain.”

Circularity and resale models

Lululemon’s “Like New” programme buys back eligible items that customers aren’t using.

All of the profits from Like New products, or 2% of revenue if this is higher, is used to support sustainability initiatives. 

The report says that 84% of company-operated stories in North America are offering this programme, but it is not offered in Canada.

It originally planned to scale this to 100% of North America, but says that “due to an evolution in our partnership model” it has not scaled to Canada as expected. 

It is, however, working to launch a new resale model in 2030 as part of a new global 2030 resale and repair goal through Impact Agenda 2030. 

In 2024, Lululemon worked with circular.fashion to begin developing circular design guidelines tailored to its products and fabrics.

It also launched a pilot with Accelerating Circularity to recycle post-consumer and post-industrial cotton waste into new products.

Materials and single-use plastics 

Lululemon says in the report that it will not meet its target of a 50% intensity reduction in single-use plastic by 2025.

It says it will remove this goal from future reporting and is currently reviewing its enterprise-wide packaging. 

The company has already met its recycled polyester sub-target a year early with 77% of its total procured polyester recycled. 

It sourced 11% renewable or recycled nylon in 2024 and the report says that “the challenge is finding readily available sources of preferred nylon 6,6 that can be easily scaled”. 

By 2030, Lululemon aimed to procure 100% of products containing at least 25% preferred materials by weight. 

However, the report says Lululemon will be adjusting its target from 100% to 90% because the development of innovative preferred materials “has proven to be complex, requiring years of investment in research and development”.

It says it achieved this for 53% of its products in 2024 and 43% of products were procured with more than 50% preferred materials by weight. 

To tackle its challenges with nylon, Lululemon’s report says it is looking to other solutions like a collaboration with ZymoChem to help commercialise and scale plant-based inputs for nylon 6,6. 

Scope 3 supply chain emissions

Lululemon says that it does not use carbon offsetting to reduce emissions.

Instead, the company identifies and implements initiatives across product and material innovation, manufacturing and transportation. 

By 2030, it aims to achieve a 60% intensity reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in purchased goods and services and upstream transportation and distribution. 

Nearly all of Lululemon’s emissions come from the supply chain and it achieved a 29% reduction in emissions relative to profit from a 2018 baseline in 2024. 

However, did see growth in both its total and intensity of Scope 3 emissions.

“As with all growth companies, it is a challenge to decrease absolute emissions across Scope 3 while executing business growth,” the report says.

Energy use and renewables

Lululemon achieved its SBTi-validated Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction target in 2021 and has maintained it since then.

It says that these emissions are primarily driven by the energy used to heat and cool buildings.

As of 2024, 35% of its Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers that previously used coal on site have eliminated its use. 

The company is part of the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA), a buyers group working to accelerate scalable and economically viable zero-emission shipping solutions for the maritime sector, and the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), which is accelerating investment in and adoption of sustainable aviation fuels. 

Lululemon has set a target for 50% of electricity consumption among its core Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers to be sourced as renewable by 2030. In 2024, the report says that this was at 15%. 

Calvin says in the report’s introduction: “We recognise that progress is not always linear and requires operating with resilience and adaptability. 

“We also know that industry solutions cannot be realised alone and depend on the innovations we pursue – along with our partners – and the accountability we uphold.”