During World Water Week 2021, Ralph Lauren Reaffirms Commitment to Water Stewardship

Freshwater is an essential resource for people and wildlife, and a foundation for healthy ecosystems and thriving economies. It’s also a resource that the apparel industry is heavily reliant on—from growing cotton to dyeing and washing fabric. At Ralph Lauren, we understand the importance of our industry protecting and preserving water. That is why we take a holistic approach to water stewardship and addressing water preservation across three targeted areas: conservation, cotton, and community.

Conservation
We are safeguarding and preserving water resources where we operate through contextual water targets and collective action program implementation in priority geographies with high water stress. Our collaboration with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) supports the advancement of our work in this area.

As part of this, we analyzed our value chain through the WWF Water Risk Filter to map key areas of water risk and develop a water footprint. The analysis also identified opportunities for watershed conservation, reduced water consumption and improved community access to water.

Our goal to reduce water use by at least 20 percent by 2025 relates to manufacturing and processing in our supply chain and water use in our owned and operated facilities, compared to a FY20 baseline.

Cotton
Sustainably sourcing cotton and accelerating the adoption of regenerative farming practices are key components of our water stewardship strategy. We are also revolutionizing how the industry dyes cotton with a groundbreaking innovation, Color on Demand. This new multi-phased platform is composed of a set of innovative technologies that will enable the recycling and reuse of all water from the dyeing process, establishing the world’s first scalable zero wastewater cotton dyeing system. In addition to significant water savings, Color on Demand dramatically reduces the amount of chemicals, dye, time and energy used in the cotton dyeing process.

Community
We will invest in a number of water conservation programs in the coming year, as well as furthering our partnerships with organizations focused on community access and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) solutions, based on local needs.

To commemorate World Water Week, we reaffirm our commitment to these efforts and initiatives that will help reduce water consumption across our value chain and protect water resources in our communities.

Learn more about our water stewardship strategy in our 2021 Global Citizenship & Sustainability Report: https://corporate.ralphlauren.com/citizenship-and-sustainability