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Ralph Lauren will introduce Cradle to Cradle Certified products, establish resale and recycling options for consumers and scale technologies that keep materials in use
Ralph Lauren Corporation has announced a comprehensive circularity strategy to further advance its sustainability goals. Grounded in Ralph Lauren’s iconic vision to create timeless products, the strategy orients around three pillars: design for circularity, establish circular experiences for consumers and advance a circular product economy.
“The spirit of timelessness has been core to Ralph’s creative vision for more than 50 years, and our circularity approach reinforces our belief that Ralph Lauren products should not only endure the test of time but have endless lifecycles,” said Patrice Louvet, President & CEO, Ralph Lauren Corporation.
As part of the strategy, the Company is also announcing a partnership with McDonough Innovation to achieve Cradle to Cradle certification, a globally recognised measure of safer, more sustainable products, with some of its most iconic products.
“For decades Ralph Lauren has set standards for innovation and been a visionary in American fashion,” said William McDonough, Chief Executive of McDonough Innovation and co-author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. “Through this new strategy, Ralph Lauren is setting another benchmark as they embrace their authentic ethos of timelessness and create products designed to be reimagined in perpetuity.”
Building on Design the Change, the Company’s framework for citizenship and sustainability, the new circularity strategy will focus on three pillars.
In the immediate term, the Company has set a goal to make five iconic products (“icons”) Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM by 2025. Brand icons are made year-round and represent some of the Ralph Lauren best sellers – from polo shirts and chinos to denim and sweaters. Looking farther ahead, the Company will bring circular design principles, applying learnings from certified icons, to other key product categories.
Building on the Company’s recent investment in and launch of the Lauren Look, its first subscription apparel rental initiative for the Lauren Ralph Lauren brand, the company will begin to offer more circular experiences for consumers beginning in 2022 by enabling product collection to support resale and recycling options for its brand products and by enhancing vintage selling capabilities.
To help the industry meaningfully shift from a linear to a circular product economy, Ralph Lauren will continue to invest in scalable technologies that will elevate the quality of recycled materials so that they are of the same high quality and feel as virgin material. In 2020, the company invested in Natural Fibre Welding, a leading sustainable material science startup that is scaling a new industry standard for natural fibre recycling.
As part of this commitment, Ralph Lauren will produce 100% recycled cotton products of the high quality it is known for across its portfolio by 2025.
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