Circular Innovation

Why It Matters

There are growing planetary risks from the overuse of natural resources, the lack of effective systems to extend the life of products and materials, and the mounting challenge of global waste. Making progress in this area requires collaboration throughout the apparel industry and beyond to develop and implement transformative circular product solutions^{1¹ Solutions such as procuring preferred materials for products, fostering circular design principles, or offering solutions to extend product use.}.

What We’re Doing

Our 2030 Goals

We focus on developing circular product solutions for our business and guests. Our 2030 Impact Agenda circularity goals are:

Make 90% of products that contain at least 25% preferred materials^{2² We consider materials to be preferred when their production processes have the potential to minimize impacts on areas like climate, nature, or communities, compared to the conventional equivalents, and/or when they align with independent third-party certifications, schemes, or standards. Where applicable, we use the Textile Exchange 2023 definition of preferred materials to guide the continued development of our framework for evaluating materials. We regularly assess the attributes for preferred materials and evolve our definition as needed. Please see the 2024 Impact Report for details on what preferred materials may include.} by weight^{3³ This excludes trims, which are estimated to be a small portion of our overall portfolio. (Trims are minor components added to a product for functional or decorative reasons, e.g., buttons, zippers, snaps.) "By weight" refers to the weight of materials in our products.}
Offer guests in 90% of global markets opportunities to extend product use, including repair or resale^{4⁴ This does not include outlets, pop-ups, airport stores, franchise markets, or markets with fewer than five stores, unless otherwise noted. As of 2024, resale is only offered in the United States.}

As part of our preferred materials goal, we also have material-specific targets. See the 2024 Impact Report for details.

To support this work, we focus on four key areas: Product & Material Innovation, Circular Design, Extended Product Use, and Packaging & Waste.

Product & Material Innovation

Creating products with preferred materials is a core strategy for reducing adverse environmental impacts and working toward long-lasting product solutions.

We strive to find scalable, long-term solutions, while taking incremental steps to contribute to shifting the industry away from conventional virgin materials. These efforts include working with preferred materials providers, developing tools and processes to evaluate our environmental impact, and co-sponsoring industry research. For more information on our initiatives related to preferred materials, please see the 2024 Impact Report.

Circular Design

Integrating circular design^{5⁵ Where applicable, we consider the Ellen MacArthur Foundation circular design definition, which refers to three principles: 1) eliminate waste and pollution upstream through design, 2) circulate materials and products by designing them to be kept in use, and at their highest value, for as long as possible, and 3) regenerate nature by designing to improve local biodiversity, air, and water quality.} principles is an important step in working to create products that last longer and are easier to resell, repair, and recycle.

Critical levers of this work include training our internal teams on circular design and integrating its principles into the design and development process.

Extended Product Use

We identify ways for our products to retain value and stay in use for as long as possible, including resale and repair.

Resale

Our Like New trade-in program offers guests the opportunity to trade in certain types of gently used gear. We then sell these products—which are verified, quality-checked, and cleaned—through our online resale shop. (Some items may be recycled or resold through other channels if the criteria of our resale shop are not met.)

By purchasing lululemon Like New over brand new, guests are supporting a circular ecosystem where existing products are kept in use. One hundred percent of Like New profits (or 2 percent of Like New revenue, whichever is higher) support sustainability initiatives.^{6⁶ For 2022, 2023, and 2024, all profits have supported Apparel Impact Institute's Fashion Climate Fund, which aims to implement and advance projects that reduce  carbon emissions by 2030.}

Our Like New trade-in program is offered at 100% of company-operated stores across the United States.^{7⁷ This does not include outlets. As of 2024, resale is only offered in the United States.}

Repair

We offer repair programs in Australia, China Mainland, Europe, Hong Kong SAR, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.^{8⁸ Repair program excludes pop-ups, the Hong Kong SAR airport store, and select outlets.} Repairs are completed by local repair partners trained to meet our quality standards.

Product & Material Recycling

We aim to resell, donate, recycle, or downcycle^{9⁹ Downcycling refers to converting a discarded material into something of lower value.} excess products and damages (e.g., returns, in-store damages, quality issues), where operationally feasible. In Canada and the U.S., Debrand distributes our products through their vetted partner network, turning products into components that can be reused, recycled or responsibly disposed of across a variety of industries.

We envision a future in which apparel at the end of its use is collected, sorted, prepared, and recycled into new products. However, the infrastructure for textile-to-textile recycling is still limited. Our teams work to identify potential solutions to accelerate progress toward a circular ecosystem.

Packaging & Waste

Packaging serves many purposes, including supporting damage-free product delivery and communication of product features.

We aim to work with suppliers that can provide preferred packaging materials, including those that contain recycled content or are verified through organizations such as Forest Stewardship Council^® (FSC^®), Sustainable Forestry Initiative^® (SFI), Global Recycled Standard (GRS), and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). See more about our approach to forest-based packaging materials on the Policies & Guidelines page, which includes our Forestry Statement.

We are members of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), a GreenBlue initiative focused on convening stakeholders to make improvements to packaging sustainability.

Zero Waste Distribution Centres

Our North American Distribution Centres (DCs) in Columbus, Ohio, and Delta, BC, use TRUE (Total Resource Use and Efficiency) certified, a low-waste certification program.

In alignment with the Zero Waste International Alliance’s definition, we define zero waste as consistently reusing, recycling, or composting over 90 percent of waste materials each year. At our North American DCs we aim to:

Divert more than 90% of waste from landfills through reuse, recycling, and composting
Track and report waste data
Establish waste committees for all sites in North America (committees meet quarterly to collaborate on waste diversion best practices)

(Site participation and results may vary by year.)