Gap Inc. Social Responsibility

As we work toward ambitious social and environmental goals, we realize that we can’t achieve them alone.

The scale and urgency of the challenges we collectively face as a global society demand collaboration. We rely on a wide range of organizations and people to share their input and ideas — from government officials to factory owners and managers, from human rights and environmental groups to trade union leaders and investors.

Stakeholders are an integral part of our social responsibility program. They lend their expertise in areas where we lack a similar depth of experience. They also serve as our eyes and ears in communities where we may not have direct visibility into sensitive issues. Time and again, we have seen how listening to a diversity of voices has brought us closer to our goals — for our company and for the workers who produce our product.

Over the years, these deepening partnerships with our stakeholders have increased our collective ability to identify and address social and environmental issues. Working together, we’re often able to achieve tangible results on key issues more quickly.

For example, we’re collaborating with organizations and other groups to address the issue of using child labor to harvest cotton in Uzbekistan. These groups include: the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF); As You Sow; Center for Reflection, Education and Action (CREA); the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR); the Environmental Justice Foundation; other brands; and investor organizations. Our aligned approach has allowed us to share best practices and gain the internal support to pilot a technology that has the potential to give us greater visibility into our supply chain. Read more.

We’ve made progress over the years, but we know that there is more to do. We also know that we have detractors who believe we’re not doing enough to address the issues we face. We welcome constructive critical input and dialogue. Part of what has enabled us to make progress over time is the feedback we receive from our stakeholders, employees, customers and communities. We invite you to let us know how we’re doing by sending us an email at Social_Responsibility@gap.com.

We have been fortunate to collaborate with partners to make progress and identify opportunities for change. No one speaks better to the value of this collaboration than the partners themselves: _______________________________________________________________________

“At ILRF, we recognize that we cannot achieve our goals to improve labor rights in global export industries without strong relationships with leaders in the export industries we seek to affect. These relationships also teach us to be better advocates as, over time, we and our company allies learn together what works and is most effective.

We have come a long way with Gap since the anti-sweatshop campaigns of the 1990’s. By establishing a relationship of mutual respect and honesty, we believe we have gained a better understanding of the business realities of the apparel sector and how they affect our issues, and in turn, we believe our allies at Gap have a much richer understanding of the nature and root causes of labor rights violations, and how to address them. 

This shared understanding and analysis did not exist a decade ago. In and of itself, it does not mean an end to labor rights abuse. It does, however, give us great hope that real progress can be achieved.”

Bama Athreya, executive director, International Labor Rights Fund
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“Over the past few years, Workers United has been collaborating with Gap Inc. on different approaches to help keep garment production in the United States and Canada.  By doing so together, we’re helping to keep better-paying manufacturing jobs in North America during a particularly volatile economic environment. We strongly believe that these efforts positively impact workers in the communities in which Gap Inc. has retail operations.”

Alex Dagg, treasurer, Workers United
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“Gap has stepped forward in a leadership role to collaborate with the NRDC and assess opportunities in factories in its global supply chain to reduce energy, water, and waste and save money and production re-runs at the same time. It has also offered valuable insights into opportunities at the design table to reduce the environmental footprint of apparel manufacturing.

NRDC knows a lot about environmental policy but little about retail. Our working relationship with Gap helps us to better understand the opportunities and practical barriers to enhancing global environmental protection outside of a government policy context.”

Linda Greer, senior scientist and director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's public health program
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"These uncertain economic times, heightened by the urgent need to address the climate and energy crisis, require companies to incorporate environmental and social risks and opportunities into their business strategies. Building on the company's existing social sustainability commitments, Gap needs to use the results from its environmental footprint assessment to put forth bold targets and long-term goals for leading the sustainability agenda in the apparel industry."

Andrea Moffat, senior director of Corporate Programs, Ceres
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“Gap is demonstrating that social investments and business investments are not mutually exclusive. Our partnership with Gap Inc. has provided us a with a fabulous space to fulfill our strategic goal — to move beyond health and education programs for women in developing countries to focus on the workplace. Working with Gap Inc. on its P.A.C.E. program is helping us to continue to advance our thinking about what it takes to change the lives of women in developing countries. It also allows us to understand the very unique role that the private sector can play in shaping a viable model for women's advancement.”

Priya Nanda, group director, SED, Asia Regional Office, International Center for Research on Women
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“Since its inception in 1998, the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) has galvanized a broad spectrum of corporations, NGOs and trade unions to bring about widespread change for workers around the world. We value Gap Inc.’s strong commitment to ETI and encourage the company to continue its leadership role on key issues such as integrating ethics into core business practices and encouraging stronger relationships between suppliers and worker organizations.”

Dan Rees, director, Ethical Trading Initiative
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For more than a decade, Social Accountability International (SAI) has endeavored to improve human rights in the workplace throughout the world. Our efforts, which include collaboration with trade unions, NGOs and companies, have touched the lives of millions of workers. We’re pleased to have Gap Inc. as a signatory member of our Corporate Involvement Program (CIP), which is the highest level of commitment a company can make.

Alice Tepper Marlin, president & chief executive officer, Social Accountability International
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“The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) has been engaging with Gap Inc. about worker rights issues since the late 1990s. Key moments in Gap’s evolution that MSN has witnessed include pioneering work with independent monitoring groups in Central America, facilitating respect for freedom of association at two major garment factories in Lesotho, releasing a frank and transparent CSR report that raised the bar for other companies, collaborating with other brands to promote a free and fair union representation election at a blue jean factory in Mexico, and working with a UK women’s organization to identify problems with its purchasing practices that have a negative impact on workers.

MSN is hopeful that Gap will build on this good record by tackling some of the difficult issues that remain, such as the poverty wages workers are paid and the employment insecurity they face as a result of trade liberalization and the current global economic crisis. Gap Inc. also needs to become more transparent on the locations of its supplier factories and the steps it is taking to improve its purchasing practices and to ensure that its sourcing decisions don’t victimize workers and good suppliers.”

Lynda Yanz, coordinator, Maquila Solidarity Network