An Analysis of Social Pillar of Sustainability for Lululmen

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
The three pillars of sustainability, namely, the economic pillar, social pillar and environmental pillar, can be used as an important index to define the sustainability issue of a certain corporation or organization. According to this pillar theory, the whole system can only be sustainable when all the three pillars are well-developed and there has been no weak pillar. Taking this three pillar of sustainability into consideration, this essay is dedicated to exploring that the social pillar has been most appropriate for the company Lulu Lemon to develop its own sustainability approaches in order to improve the brand image, value and its overall identity.

2. Lululemon and Social Pillar of Sustainability
2.1 Brief Introduction of Lululemon
Established in Vancouver, Canada in the year 1998, Lululemon is a company focuses on producing sports wears especially for sports such as yoga, jogging, gymnastics as well as sport dancing. The company develops its business at an alarming rate and the past 15 years have witnessed great development for the brand. Up till now, there are altogether more than 150 Lululemon retail stores all over the world (Lululemon.com, 2015). As a company based on both environmental and economic values at the same time, the brand claims that its purpose is to launch products that can help their customers to improve their life expectancy, health status and happiness. Yet during years of development, there have been some difficulties and obstacles hindering the company’s overall sustainability development. The sustainability of a company refers to the company using greener strategies and approaches to generate faithful customers and long-term employees, and at the same time with great natural environmental awareness and aligning the company’s developmental strategy with the social, cultural and economic development.

2.2 Social Pillar of Sustainability
Sustainability is considered as union of economic, social, and environmental factors. They are named the three pillars of sustainability, which means that the organization should seek for a balance between economic, social, and environmental aims in the long run (Farley, 2013). The economic pillar of sustainability means that the organization implements strategies that improve the utilization of resources to their best. The economic pillar refers to a reasonable allocation and distribution of socio-economic resources, which aims to improve the utilization of resources effectively and responsibly that produce benefits in the long term. The continuous and stable operation of a company relies on its profits. The social pillar of sustainability refers to maintain a balanced approach to the demands of the individual and that of the group. Various organization implement different business sustainability programs that closely related to their business missions. The trouble organizations in different industries prove the significant of social pillar of sustainability. If the organization turns a blind eye to the social needs of the community, it will be faced with serious business problems. It is of considerable significance for an organization to invest in social responsibility though more attention to community needs. The environmental pillar of sustainability means that the organization pay attention to the environment influence of its production and operations. An advocator of environmental sustainability named Herman Daly claims three main principles, the first one is that for renewable resources, the rate of regeneration should be faster than that of harvest. The second one is that for nonrenewable resources, relative renewable substitutes should be found for the loss of the nonrenewable resources. The third one is that the assimilative ability of the environment should be stronger than the waste production (Mulligan, 2014).

The three pillars of sustainability is an