Protect the Environment
In addition to creating products more responsibly, in our business operations we are transitioning to renewable energy, diverting waste from landfill and incineration and efficiently managing water use.
Climate
Addressing the climate crisis requires significant reductions to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. That is why we have created an ambitious roadmap with bold near-term and long-term targets to reduce absolute GHG emissions across our operations and value chain.
Water Stewardship
We are committed to reducing water consumption across our value chain and to replenishing and safeguarding water resources in our communities.
Waste Management
We work to minimize waste in our operations and divert waste from landfill and incineration to donation, reuse and recycling. Our goal is continued improvement as we incorporate zero waste principles throughout our business practices.
Chemical Management
We monitor and reduce hazardous chemical use and discharge to meet our goal to eliminate hazardous chemicals from our product manufacturing and supply chain.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is essential for the health of humans, the environment and the economy. We work to reduce our impact on nature and protect and restore the ecosystems our supply chain relies on.
CASE STUDY
Carbon Leadership Program
In FY24, we continued our roll out of the Carbon Leadership Program (CLP) through our partnership with the Apparel Impact Institute (Aii). CLP brings together action-oriented brands in the apparel industry to accelerate the implementation of their supply chain carbon targets, while also standardizing approaches with their suppliers so that they can be replicated by the rest of the industry.
Through CLP, we provided funding for expert technical support for nominated manufacturing facilities to establish their 2030 carbon and water reduction plans in alignment with broader industry ambitions and best practices. We expanded our CLP roll out to cover 95 facilities, representing suppliers with approximately 48% of our core fabric business volume, including 28 finished goods facilities.
For carbon, the average reduction targets committed to by all the nominated facilities as of FY24 is 63% by 2030 compared to a 2019 baseline. We continue to engage with facilities in the program quarterly to track and review the implementation progress through Aii’s Carbon Target Monitoring work.
For water, based on the roadmaps developed and committed to by the nominated facilities, we estimate 22 million cubic meters of aggregate water consumption could be saved annually by 2030. Water efficiency projects have been identified as having the highest potential for reduction, followed by water recycling projects, which, on average, reduce freshwater usage by 16% and 13%, respectively.
CASE STUDY
Science Based Targets for Nature
In FY24, we began leveraging the Science Based Targets (SBTs) for Nature methodology to shape our biodiversity goals and strategy. Specifically, we completed Steps 1 and 2, which included conducting a fashion and retail sector materiality assessment, determining where we have the greatest impact within our value chain given our material use, and prioritizing the areas of highest nature impact.
Following the SBTs for Nature methodology, our assessment took a location-specific and commodity-specific approach, examining the most pressing nature issues for Ralph Lauren—which include water quantity, water quality, soil pollution, land use change, land use and biodiversity—as well as identifying key raw materials to prioritize, in particular cotton and cashmere.
Looking ahead, we will leverage findings from Steps 1 and 2 to inform the development of a comprehensive nature strategy and goals that will cover impact areas such as water, land use, and ecosystem engagement
CASE STUDY
Green Ponies
The Global Green Ponies, established in 2019, is an employee-led, grass-roots community that is dedicated to furthering our GC&S strategy. Three regional communities across Asia-Pacific; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and North America are committed to advancing sustainability initiatives and instilling values and behaviors that align with our company's GC&S objectives.
We are continually working to identify actions we can take in our corporate offices that contribute to waste reduction and diversion. For example, we have an ongoing partnership with FABSCRAP that includes educational sessions and recycling and reusing sample fabric in our New York City offices, leading to more than 13,000 pounds of fabric diverted from landfill in FY24. Furthermore, we have implemented organic waste collection for composting at our corporate headquarters in New York City, which resulted in over 20 tons of organics composted in FY24.
Our Green Ponies community is focused on giving back and creating a positive impact in our local communities. Across APAC, EMEA and NA, we host environmental-focused volunteer events, such as park beautifications, clothing drives, and more recently “plogging”, an activity of swedish origin that combines jogging with picking up litter, a perfect synergy of enhancing our community's well-being while taking care of our environment.
