We are participating in the Race to the Top partnership in Vietnam between other apparel brands, ILO/Better Work and the Vietnamese, Danish and Dutch governments. Race to The Top aims to build a sustainable garment industry in Vietnam through a number of measures to improve the environmental and social sustainability of the country's apparel manufacturing processes and facilities. Our Supply Chain and Sourcing teams' work to develop and maintain a diverse supplier base across a number of countries reduces risk on an ongoing basis. We are working to integrate more sustainable materials, which are less vulnerable to climate and other environmental impacts, into our product design and sourcing practices. We have a goal to achieve a reduction of water consumption in the production of our clothes by 1B liters in 2017, and by 2021 Gap brand will use Washwell, sustainable wet processing, for 75% of their product. We are also working to use more sustainable fabrics and raw materials (such as Gap brand's goal to use 100% sustainable cotton, including BCI cotton, by 2021) that use less water; since 2016, we have already sourced 11.5 million pounds of BCI cotton. We have conducted comprehensive environmental audits, including water consumption and wastewater treatment and disposal, using the Sustainable Apparel Coalition's (SAC) Higg Index at 40 strategic mills in six countries thus far and are working to expand the program to all of our strategic mill partners.We request all of our Tier 1 suppliers conduct and report annually on their environmental footprint assessments using the Higg Index. We have also actively monitored and helped to remediate wastewater quality at denim laundries through our Water Quality Program (WQP).We are an active partner in the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) 2020 Roadmap to eliminate hazardous chemicals from our supply chain by 2020.

Project Results