lululemon Assessment for Accreditation

In October 2024, FLA’s board of directors voted to accredit the social compliance program of lululemon, a publicly traded technical athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories company for yoga, running, training, and other activities.

lululemon joined FLA in 2020. Since becoming an FLA member, lululemon continuously improved its social compliance program and kept pace with the changes to FLA standards enacted over the intervening years. This accreditation report details FLA’s evaluation of lululemon’s social compliance program, referred to as lululemon’s responsible supply chain (RSC) program, through September 2024.

Highlights of lululemon’s Fair Labor Accreditation include:

• Supplier relationships: lululemon has strong long-term relationships with its suppliers and prioritizes supplier relationships within its RSC strategy. Since joining FLA, lululemon has invested significantly in new systems to enhance its assessment tools, enable more detailed data analysis, and maintain all supplier information to support effective supplier engagement. Suppliers have direct relationships with regional RSC staff, where the team provides support and guidance on improving workplace conditions. lululemon also subscribes to the Better Buying Institute, where suppliers use the annual surveys to provide anonymous feedback on categories related to responsible purchasing practices, and participates in FLA’s living wage pilot in Vietnam as part of its progress toward fair compensation for workers. In addition, lululemon works directly with eligible suppliers to help fund projects focused on well-being in the workplace and gender equity.
• Social compliance monitoring: lululemon’s RSC program includes a comprehensive assessment tool and guidelines in line with its vendor code of ethics and compliance benchmarks, which align with and address FLA standards and requirements. Suppliers and assessors receive training and regular communication on the updates to the monitoring system. lululemon keeps and tracks all audit and supplier data in a robust supplier data management system and regularly utilizes supplier performance to inform business decisions.
• Capacity-building: lululemon uses a third-party e-learning platform to provide suppliers with onboarding and workplace standards trainings as well as other social compliance and human rights-related resources, and closely tracks training records of each supplier within this system. The RSC assessment tool and procedures include a review of manager, supervisor, and worker trainings and their effectiveness, including grievance mechanisms. lululemon also effectively uses root cause analysis of non-compliances to develop capacity-building trainings and provides them to suppliers for further improvement, and partners with civil society organizations to leverage local expertise in strengthening existing capacity-building initiatives that uphold human rights and worker well-being.