Lululemon - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Lululemon is High Risk.

Lululemon is High Risk. The company yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. Lululemon embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	High Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	High Risk
Employment Protection	Medium Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	High Risk
Political Actions	No Data

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Lululemon fired an employee for what it deemed an offensive social media post on a personal account (1). Lululemon promotes divisive sex and gender policies. Its Vendor Code of Ethics requires international vendors to include sexual orientation and gender identity in their nondiscrimination policy (2).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Lululemon will not match employee donations to churches or religious organizations “Individuals, groups with religious or political affiliations, or third-party fundraising groups (1).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Lululemon does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (1)(2).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Lululemon is a member of the “Don’t Ban Equality” business coalition, which advocates against any abortion restrictions because they are “bad for business” (1). The company opposed various state and local legislation intended to protect parental rights, girls’ sports, bathroom facilities, and gendered spaces (2)(3). Lululemon has also hosted events that encourage attendees to “resist capitalism” and “decolonize gender” (4)(5). The company is a Ceres Network Member, committed to carbon neutrality by 2040 (6)(7)(8).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Lululemon provides a benefits package for employees that covers travel/lodging costs for an abortion (1)(2). Lululemon is a Rainbow Tier corporate sponsor of the Trevor Project, an organization that advocates for controversial sex and gender ideology, including “gender transition” drugs and surgeries for minors, through legislation, litigation, advertising, and PR campaigns. The organization also hosts online chatrooms that allow adults to communicate with minors as young as 13 about sexually explicit topics. Adults in these chatrooms have encouraged minors to adopt transgender identities and withhold this information from their parents (3)(4)(5)(6)(7). The company donated $250,000 to Black Lives Matter and Reclaim the Block (8)(9)(10)(11). Lululemon donated $500,000 to The Center for Reproductive Rights (12)(13). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of the company using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (14).