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Ralph Lauren will introduce Cradle to Cradle-certified products, identify resale and recycling options for consumers, and scale technologies that continue to use materials

Ralph Lauren Corporation has announced a comprehensive circularity strategy to further advance its sustainability goals. The strategy is based on Ralph Lauren’s iconic vision to create timeless products. It is based on three pillars: design for circularity, creation of circular experiences for consumers and promotion of a circular product economy.

“The spirit of timelessness has been at the core of Ralph’s creative vision for more than 50 years, and our circularity approach confirms our belief that Ralph Lauren products should not only stand 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 recognized move for safer, more sustainable products with some of its most iconic products.

“Ralph Lauren has set the standard for innovation for decades and is a visionary in American fashion,” said William McDonough, general manager of McDonough Innovation and co-author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. “With this new strategy, Ralph Lauren is setting another benchmark by taking up its authentic ethos of timelessness and developing products that are intended to be reinterpreted over the long term.”

Building on Design the Change, the company’s citizenship and sustainability framework, the new circularity strategy will focus on three pillars.

In the short term, the company has set itself the goal of producing five iconic products (“Icons”) from Cradle to Cradle CertifiedTM by 2025. Brand symbols are made year-round and represent some of Ralph Lauren’s bestsellers – from polo shirts to chinos to jeans and sweaters. Looking to the future, the company will apply circular design principles, transferring knowledge from certified symbols to other important product categories.

Building on the company’s recent investment in the Lauren Look, its first subscription apparel rental initiative for the Lauren Ralph Lauren brand, starting in 2022, the company will bring more circular experiences to consumers by adding the product collection to support resale and recycling options for its product line Branded products and by enhancing vintage sales opportunities.

To enable the industry to make a meaningful transition from a linear to a circular product economy, Ralph Lauren will continue to invest in scalable technologies that improve the quality of recycled materials so that they are of the same high quality and feel like virgin material. In 2020, the company invested in Natural Fiber Welding, a leading sustainable materials science startup that is setting a new industry standard for natural fiber recycling.

As part of this commitment, Ralph Lauren will be producing 100% recycled cotton products of the high quality for which it is known throughout its portfolio by 2025.