Corporate Social Repsonsibility

Gap, Inc.,  is a very socially responsible business overall with sustainability integrated into it at almost every level. This is partially credited to its good leadership in CSR, scoring an ESG Score of     68/100, labeling the corporation as an “Outperformer” in 89^th percentile of businesses measured.

Individually it scored 65/100 in Environment (83^rd), 68/100 in Social (89^th), and 71/100 in Governance (87^th). The company strives to achieve a circular design through Life Cycle Analysis, measuring the efficiency and sustainability of its practices from resource extraction and refining, manufacturing, packaging and distribution, consumer use, to end of life. As part of their 2020 Circular Fashion Commitment with GFA, Gap Inc. has set three commitments to achieve by 2020:

• train cross-functional product teams for each of our brands on circular design techniques and best practices.
• help increase the volume of used garments collected globally through participation in pre-competitive, industry-led collection pilots.
• identify the most promising recycling technologies for post-consumer materials across multiple product categories, and start scaling them up in our supply chain.

They also value the education of their employees on their goals by incorporating sustainability workshops and educational trainings into their companywide learning and development programs. Employees develop an understanding of where products and services of the company come from and how they are helping the world. Gap’s companywide initiatives include creating solutions for women and water, improving manufacturing at mills and laundries, reducing climate change and waste impacts, and enhancing product sustainability.

As a clothing brand, Gap focuses a lot of energy on its product sustainability. As aforementioned, they perform a Life-Cycle Analysis of their products in order to find areas in which they could make their processes and products more sustainable. To accomplish these efforts, they utilize relationships with peers, partners and stakeholder groups, such as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Textile Exchange, the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) and Made-By. They have developed different product solutions for some of their own brands specifically, as well as the entire incorporation. These goals include the following:

-       Gap Inc: By 2020, eliminate use of wood-derived fabrics sourced from ancient & endangered forests

-       Gap: By 2021 source 110% cotton from more sustainable sources, such as Better Cotton Initiative, organic, recycled, & American-grown

-       Athleta: by 2020, 80% of materials made with sustainable fibers % 25% products made using techniques that save water

One example of a successful campaign for customer and product sustainability was their “recycle your blues” campaign, which encouraged customers to bring in gently used denim to be donated or recycled in exchange for a discount.

It is difficult to find CSR issues with Gap as it is very highly ranked as a certified B-Corp and being in the 89^th percentile ESG. In 2015 it was names a world’s most ethical company by the Ethisphere Institute, the 9^th year in a row they were recognized by the organization.

However, in 2003, Gap terminated business with 136 factories due to serious breaches of their Code of Vendor Conduct, such as forced and child labor and frequent breaches of health and safety. This was as a result of extensive reviews and inspections of its thousands of garment factories. Though this was unfortunate, it was discovered in an effort to be fairer and more socially responsible & ethical. Gap continues to be transparent about its issues and fixing them through expectations & employee education.

       Gap, Inc., incorporates the idea of Strategic Sustainability, as discussed in a lecture Dr. Macagno to students at Chatham University. He defined CSR as “A responsibility among firms to meet the needs of their stakeholders and a responsibility among stakeholders to hold firms to account for their actions”. However, he emphasized that there is a danger of incorporating CSR incorrectly if not done for the right reasons. It should act as a “filter” that identifies mission (what) and vision (why) within strategy (specifics) and tactics (how) of a company, becoming a foundation for all of its major decision making. There is a perfect balance of this, as demonstrated in the first graph from his lecture, comparing the sweet spot and danger zone of CSR. The second graph depicts differences between CSR as a competitive advantage and Strategic CSR as a company foundation. Gap., Inc makes use of Strategic CSR to promote its good deeds in a way that makes people want to spend money with them, but also fundamentally feeds the core values of their business.

“By finding new ways to deliver great product and shopping experiences in a socially responsible way, we strive to be a company that is respected and trusted by customers, employees, shareholders, and people in the communities where we do business around the world.”

Robert Fisher CEO, 2006