We stand for humanity, diversity and empathy—without exception.
Our Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Action (IDEA) mission
Expand being well to encompass a culture of inclusion where diversity is celebrated, equity is the norm, and action is the commitment.
A Message from our CEO, Calvin McDonald
At lululemon, we have been on an ongoing journey to drive meaningful, lasting change in the world and promote wellbeing across our communities. As part of our Impact Agenda we are accelerating programs to become a more inclusive and diverse company.
In 2020, after many real and impactful conversations with our underrepresented employees and our greater community, we heard loud and clear that we needed to evolve behaviours both within our own walls and our collective.
IDEA – Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Action – focuses on making systemic changes. By standing up and funding IDEA, and creating our commitments grounded in action and accountability, we are determined to be engaged and act in allyship.
For us, IDEA is a critical business function that is embedded into everything we do. We are proud of the progress we are making, and we are a stronger company because of the culture we continue to build together.
lululemon is committed to fostering positive, lasting change within our organization and beyond, with a focus on promoting wellbeing in our communities.
In the initial stages of this journey, we listened closely to the voices within our collective, engaging in numerous impactful conversations with both employees and our broader communities. Through these dialogues, it became clear that change was necessary, and we began constructing a sustainable framework rooted in inclusivity and equity, which would become integral to our culture and business operations.
We launched our IDEA initiative—Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Action)—in 2020 and declared our commitments. We continue our dedicatation to implementing systemic changes, being engaged and accountable, and fostering allyship.
In the early years of IDEA, we focused ond developing inclusive leaders, facilitating safe conversations among employees, identifying and dismanting inequitable barriers, and enhancing the experience of every individual within our organization.
In 2023, we achieved significant milestones against our commitments, including a more than 10% increase in diversity across various areas of our company—particularly in management positions—filled since the launch of IDEA. We have exceeded many of our goals, paving the way for the next phase of our journey as we look to the future.
Under the guidance of our CEO Calvin McDonald, and alongside our Senior Leadership Team, Global Head of IDEA, Stacia Jones, and the entire IDEA team, we are renewing our commitments to continue accelerating our IDEA mission.
1. Hold all people leaders at lululemon accountable for fostering inclusion, diversity, and equity within their teams by completing the required inclusive leadership curriculum and through data-informed measures.
2. Continue ongoing dialogue between underrepresented members of our collective with Calvin McDonald and our Senior Leadership Team.
3. Deepen our learning and development offerings to foster inclusive behaviours through allyship sessions and training in inclusive and equitable design.
4. Reinforce our bias mitigation structures and targeted programs that help attract and develop talent from diverse backgrounds.
5. Engage with our people and leverage our expertise, resources, and communities to advance the well-being of our people through grants, partnerships, and our Impact goals led by our Centre of Social Impact, Public Affairs, and IDEA.
Through a comprehensive review of all our policies and practices, we have made several shifts, and have continued to provide tools and resources to our collective focused on how we can all live into our commitments and drive change inside and outside of our walls.
Increase funding, accelerate actions, and create accountability for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Action
In 2020, we hired Stacia Jones as our Global Head of IDEA and have since filled nearly 20 roles on the team. We also brought together four advisory committees, an executive steering committee, many task forces, and more than 11 work streams dedicated to the work.
IDEA has been allocated $5 million in budget per year, and an additional $3 million towards our social impact program, Here to Be.
“IDEA is not a simple program nor a simple HR initiative. It is a critical business function that serves every part and element of lululemon and is as essential as all other functions that make us the impactful company that we are.” –Stacia Jones
Create an ongoing dialogue between underrepresented members of our collective with Calvin McDonald and our Senior Leadership Team
We established and funded 11 employee-led People Network groups that provide equity-centered spaces for connection and development, and a global advisory committee comprised of lululemon ambassadors who bring diverse knowledge and skills to inform our actions and collectively drive meaningful change around the world. The People Networks represent Black, Indigenous Peoples, Latine, Chronic Illness, Mental Health & Disabilities, South Asian, Asian, Middle Eastern and North African, Size Inclusivity, Jewish, and LGBTQ2IA+ employees and allies. We have also continued to hold quarterly dialogue sessions with our CEO Calvin McDonald,and our racialized employees to foster ongoing connection. Listening and being in conversation with our collective has been a core component of our multifaceted suite of feedback channels from which we learn and take informed action. Since 2020, we have dedicated more than 1,500 hours to holding listening spaces.
Expand our training, learning and development to support Inclusion, Diversity and Equity
We held our first virtual IDEA Summit for our people and our ambassadors to provide tools and resources for creating behavior change and inclusive environments, continued to deliver localized training throughout the year to our employees around the world, launched global on-demand coaching, and provided the entire organization with toolkits to understand and communicate on IDEA. Some key programs we have launched since 2020 to support IDEA learning and development include:
Inclusive and equitable design certification, piloted in June 2021, to upskill teams in advancing accessibility and proactively designing programs, services, products and experiences that remove barriers and enable expanded benefits for all. Since then, we have certified more than 300 people, launched organization-wide e-learning, and have developed several inclusive design resources.
Women Of program designed to empower women, especially those whose professional advancement is uniquely shared by racial, cultural, or ethnic experiences. This program has supported more than 100 women to date through cultivating community, expanding networking opportunities, and providing personal, leadership, and professional development.
Learning in Equity, Actioning Now (LEAN) program which builds collective understanding of history and context to support allies in creating action. This program is available to our full global collective.
Increase diverse representation among our employees and our collective
We remain committed to an ongoing, comprehensive review of our practices, policies, and processes to eliminate bias and identify further opportunities for growth and systemic change. The review, alongside our annual global demographic and inclusion index survey, has helped us to measure our progress and guide our work to increase diversity throughout lululemon. Our goal is to reach 40% racially diverse representation for our stores, and 30% racially diverse representation of our directors and assistant store managers and above by 2023. The funding and launch of aour global internship and global mentorship programs also support our commitments to attract and retain more diverse talent.
We will use our brand and our voice to advocate for change
We provided an additional $3 million to our social impact program, Here to Be, for a total of $7 million in 2020, to disrupt inequity in wellbeing through movement, mindfulness, and activism. As a part of our promise to leverage our platform to communicate with our community, amplify diverse voices, and galvanize our community to act, we outfitted our stores with signage that states our stance against racism, discrimination, harassment, and hate, and created house rules for our social media channels that echo our no-tolerance policy of these behaviors.
We will continue to provide updates on our IDEA efforts and commitments in lululemon’s annual Impact Report.
