Across the apparel industry, more than 97 percent of the materials used are from virgin sources, which is resource-intensive to produce. As a brand with a deep history in quality and authenticity, materials have always mattered to us. We’ve prioritized durability, craftsmanship and performance to create products that stand the test of time. Since setting our 2025 goals for our key raw materials (cotton, wool, cashmere, leather, viscose, polyester and down), we have continued to refine our sustainable sourcing criteria, including using recycled alternatives.

We are inspired by nature and prefer natural over manmade fibers, with cotton making up 82 percent of our material use this past year. By 2025, we will only source sustainable cotton, such as Fair Trade certified, organic, recycled, transitional, cotton aligned to the US Cotton Trust Protocol and Better Cotton (BCI). Ralph Lauren is a proud member of the Better Cotton Initiative, and is committed to improving cotton farming practices globally. Better Cotton is not physically traceable to end products. However, BCI Farmers benefit from the demand for Better Cotton in equivalent volumes to those we ‘source.’ This past year, we sourced 6.5 tonnes of Better Cotton, which is equivalent to an estimated 8 percent of our cotton lint consumption. We aim to increase this number as we work toward our 2025 goal.

When we do use manmade fibers, we aim to use recycled or sustainably sourced options. Overall, polyester is our most used synthetic fiber, making up 6 percent of our total material use. We are actively working towards replacing virgin with recycled polyester across our products.Notably, our Earth Polo is made entirely from fiber derived from post consumer recycled ocean-bound plastic bottles. This transition is significant considering recycled polyester uses 45 percent less energy and emits 30 percent less carbon dioxide compared to virgin polyester.