Lululemon, a trendsetting Canada-headquartered athleticwear brand, is facing multiple challenges that allege the brand is engaging in greenwashing through its “Be Planet” marketing campaign.

How the cases play out can carry importance for companies in the promotional products market, as industry firms navigate the complexities tied to making sustainability claims in marketing and advertising.

This month, Florida resident Amandeep Gyani filed a proposed class action lawsuit in federal court in Florida, alleging Lululemon is a “major contributor to the environmental crisis” and that sustainability-themed claims in its marketing are “unfair, false, deceptive and misleading to reasonable consumers.”

As such, Gyani contends, Lululemon is guilty of greenwashing, a practice that involves making false or misleading statements about the environmental benefits of a product, practice or company.

Meanwhile, Stand.earth, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization, lodged what it described as a first-of-its-kind complaint in France against Lululemon, saying the fashion retailer greenwashes its products.

Filed with the French Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control on July 24, the complaint calls on the directorate to investigate Lululemon for alleged greenwashing violations.

“As a clothing company responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions, large quantities of waste and the release of microplastics into the environment, Lululemon should not present itself as a company whose products and actions contribute to ‘restoring a healthy planet,’” the Stand.earth complaint said. “Representations of this nature are misleading because they take no account of these harmful effects and are extremely vague and disproportionate.”

Lululemon Responds

Lululemon told media outlets that include Just Style and Retail Dive that its “Be Planet” initiative is a pillar of its environmental impact strategy, rather than a marketing campaign, and that statements regarding its sustainability position “accurately reflect” its goals and commitments.

While more must be done, the fashion retailer maintained that it has made significant progress on reducing environmental impact and that it plans to do more. This includes getting, by 2050, to “net zero” – a state in which greenhouse gas emissions tied to its operations, and removals of these gases, are in balance.

“We have achieved a 60% absolute reduction of greenhouse emissions in our owned and operated facilities but recognize most of our climate impact comes from emissions of our broader supply chain,” the Lululemon spokesperson told Retail Dive. “We are taking direct action and are committed to collaborating with industry partners to help address supply chain impacts on climate change. We welcome dialogue and remain focused on driving progress. This work is far from complete.”

Lululemon says it has taken steps toward creating a circular ecosystem, such as developing an “enzymatically recycled” polyester jacket.

Claims & Demands

Gyani, who formally accuses Lululemon of deceptive trade practices under Florida law, unjust enrichment and misleading advertising, asks that the lawsuit be certified as a class action case.

The suit requests financial damages, mandated repayment of alleged ill-begotten profits by Lululemon and an “appropriate” injunction, which could potentially prevent Lululemon from engaging in further purported greenwashing assertions.

Accusing Lululemon of running afoul of the Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides, which seek to help marketers avoid bogus sustainability claims, Gyani says greenwashing is in play, in part, because greenhouse gas emissions associated with Lululemon have allegedly more than doubled since the start of the Be Planet campaign in 2020. The company also produces products from synthetic materials that release microplastics that pollute the ocean and other waterways and/or contribute to landfill waste, the suit states.

This #Nike case drew attention among marketers in the #promoproducts world and beyond due to claims – had they been substantiated – that could have affected #marketing related to products characterized as #sustainable, including apparel. https://t.co/OcH0KTy0oo

— Chris Ruvo (@ChrisR_ASI) June 14, 2024

Some of the claims in the suit appear to make Lululemon a representative scapegoat of sorts for broader practices in the apparel industry – things like environmental impacts associated with garment production and clothing ending up in scrap heaps.

Somewhat adjacently, a recent greenwashing lawsuit against Nike claimed the recycled polyester and recycled nylon used in the athleticwear brands’ products are not actually sustainable materials and thus can’t be marketed or advertised as such. Had those claims been affirmed in court, there likely would have been industry-wide implications for apparel makers and marketers, including those in promo. However, a judge dismissed the case.

Back to Lululemon: In the Stand.earth complaint, the nonprofit asserts that the Canadian brand’s own impact report released in 2023 “revealed another year of staggering growth in emissions – in fact, a 100% increase in climate pollution since deploying the slogan.”

Lululemon, Stand.earth says, also relies heavily on fossil fuels to make its products. The group says more than 60% of the materials the company uses are fossil fuel-derived – materials that “contribute to climate pollution, cannot be effectively recycled, do not biodegrade…”

“We are asking French officials to investigate how Lululemon can claim to ‘Be Planet’ while creating more planet-harming emissions every year than half a million cars,” says Stand Executive Director Todd Paglia, whose organization also filed a complaint against Lululemon in Canada earlier this year.

The European Union, of which France is a part, this year cracked down on greenwashing, passing rules that aim to better protect consumers from false claims made by corporations about sustainability. The EU has been focused on the so-called Green Claims Directive, which would require sustainability claims to be checked by an independent and accredited verifier and will include new rules on governance of environmental labeling. Stand.earth says its complaint “will mark the first test of the French regulator’s readiness for a wave of new European legislation.”

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