Fashion
Chances are, climate change isn’t at the front of your mind when you’re deciding what to wear to work or dressing your kids.
But there aren’t many products we have a closer connection to than our clothes.
What we wear doesn’t just affect us. It affects our families and our futures.
Lululemon’s unhealthy addiction to fossil fuels
Did you know that some fabrics are actually made from fossil fuels?
Synthetic fabrics, like nylon, spandex, acrylic and polyester, are made from petroleum. This means fossil fuel-based fabric is a mainstay of brands like Lululemon.
Add to that the pollution fashion brands produce when they use coal and gas to manufacture and transport your clothes.
That’s why the textile industry is reported to emit a massive 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent every year.
Time for Lululemon to shape up
So many brands reassure us they are sustainable, but they are still not acting to deliver on their promises.
High-end activewear brand, Lululemon, is a major empty-promise culprit. Lululemon claims to be sustainable. It even claims it’s ‘made by yogis’. Its marketing thrives on wellness culture, while its actions undercut its own image by maintaining a dirty addiction to fossil fuels.
The good news is that technology exists today for every brand to stop using the fossil fuels that are cooking the planet. Some brands are way ahead in ending their fossil fuel addiction.
Isn’t it time for Lululemon to shape up, too?
Lulu’s loopholes
Lululemon claims to have an emissions reduction target of 60% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. But if you look at the fine print, you’ll see a major loophole.
The company has adopted an ‘intensity-based’ target for its supply chain. That means it’s only committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions per unit of production. It is becoming more ‘pollution efficient’, so that when it expands to sell more products, its overall fossil fuel use will still increase.
Compare this to other activewear brands, like Asic and Mammut, who have made commitments to reduce their total greenhouse gas emissions, and Lululemon starts to look dirty and unhealthy.
Make Lulu deliver
This means that when you buy Lululemon, you pay for dirty fossil fuels. You pay for the global spike in lung cancer, heart disease, fires and floods that comes with them. You pay to wear climate-changing, fossil fuel-based fabric on your skin.
Isn’t that the exact opposite of what Lululemon claims they are about?
