lululemon: Centering People and Planet on our Impact Journey

• Stacia Marie Jones, Esq.


• 6 Aug 2023

Corporations bear a significant responsibility to scale solutions to systemic issues that limit us all, across an evolving spectrum of social and environmental concerns. An elevated approach is required to address the complexities of today’s challenges, balancing a broad scope of environmental, social, and governance investments, alongside growing the bottom line.

In my role at lululemon, I am responsible for leading our global Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Action function—also known as IDEA—and delivering our strategy and commitments across all facets of the business. To address all the intricacies of inclusion and equity, and effectively provide support and remove barriers, we must have genuine impact. That impact requires a comprehensive, holistic approach, and an understanding that the wellbeing of people, communities, and the planet are intricately intertwined and must be addressed accordingly.

That is why IDEA is reflected powerfully in our Impact Agenda, established in 2020 to serve as a driver for innovation and dedicated corporate action. Bold commitments that span three pillars of equity, wellbeing, and sustainability hold our organization to account and reflect our ambition to build a more equitable and sustainable future for our planet and its people.

Above all, our Impact Agenda underpins our corporate growth strategy and helps guide our strategic roadmap for delivering on our purpose as a business. As we continue our journey to integrate DEI and sustainability into every part of our business, some examples of important actions we are taking include:

• Connecting DEI and sustainability to our culture and
  values. This means prioritizing Impact initiatives and ensuring that they are embedded within our corporate purpose, vision, and values. At lululemon, our initiatives reflect and support what is most important to us—the humans we employ, serve, and partner with, and the environment in which we do it all.
• Setting measurable goals and tracking our progress. We believe in setting ambitious, measurable near- and long -term goals and regularly tracking our progress. This helps to ensure accountability and identify areas for improvement. Importantly, this tracking is not a mere checklist, but a way to hold ourselves accountable for the impact we are committed to making.
• Engaging stakeholders. We believe in engaging with a range of stakeholders, including employees, customers,
  partners, and community organizations, to understand their perspectives on DEI and sustainability and identify opportunities for collaboration. It is important that we provide many seats around the table, listen, seek to understand, and act. Simply, center the humans. Tackling social and environmental issues in a meaningful way requires partnership and collaboration across our industry.
• Addressing underlying issues. We are committed to addressing underlying issues, such as systemic racism and environmental degradation. Listening, learning, and honest two-way conversation are key to our journey.

Our goal is to drive long-term impact, supporting and activating our employees, guests, ambassadors, suppliers, and industry on this continuous journey. And as we make progress, we know the efforts must continue, and we are committed to digging deeper and advocating for industry-wide partnership and collaboration to have true, lasting impact.