Gap Inc. Social Responsibility

What you’ll find on our new social responsibility site

We believe in communicating openly about our work in social responsibility. This site covers our efforts company-wide, both in the U.S. and around the world, at all of our brands: Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime and Athleta. To make it easy to navigate, we’ve organized information about the four main areas of our program under the goals and progress section of the site: supply chain, employees, environment and community investment. Data on the site relates to Gap Inc.’s fiscal years 2007 and 2008, which ran from February 1, 2007 until January 31, 2009, unless otherwise noted.

Why we moved online

We wanted to protect natural resources. Not printing a report saves trees — and is more aligned with our environmental strategy. What’s more, moving online helps us:

    - Reach more people, including employees and customers.

    - Share a more detailed picture of our work throughout the world.

    - Update information more often.

    - Add new interactive features, link to additional materials, and better display our data across time.

When you go to our site, you’ll be able to build your own customized report and turn it into a PDF. We’re trying to make it as easy as possible to access what interests you most. And we’ll be archiving a PDF of the entire site to have a permanent reference for where we are at the time of launch. As we update the site, we will create new PDF’s so that comparisons can be drawn over time and a permanent reference exists for different years.

Our last report was published in 2007, covering data from fiscal years 2005 and 2006, and we are committed to updating the data on our website at least every two years. We will make more frequent updates to other parts of the site as new information becomes available. We also aim to continue to communicate with our stakeholders on an ongoing basis through formal sessions, informal outreach, dialogue and partnerships.

Stakeholders

We could not have produced this web site without the input of our stakeholders. They help us in many ways, from being our eyes and ears on the ground in places where we are not as closely connected to helping us strategize about what to focus on as a company. Our Public Reporting Working Group has been instrumental in producing this site, providing feedback on stories, insights into our overall message, and perspective on our data, progress, and areas where we still need to do more work. Focused on helping us achieve greater transparency and sustainability, this group has been collaborating with us since late 2002; it is comprised of Domini Social Investments, the Calvert Group, the As you Sow Foundation, the Center for Reflection, Education and Action and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. Members reviewed this site before it went live. To read their statement, please click here.

In 2007, SustainAbility completed an assessment of how various social responsibility issues could impact our business performance, how external stakeholders viewed these issues, and how much control or influence we have over the issues. We continue to seek to address the key issues raised in SustainAbility’s findings. A detailed discussion of the assessment can be found on page 14 of our 2005/2006 Social Responsibility Report. 

In addition, we provide regular, separate reports on our progress to the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), Social Accountability International (SAI) and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) as a condition of our membership. We’re grateful for the insights and support of our stakeholders and value how much they’ve helped us improve both our work in social responsibility and our public reporting.

A collaboration of both individuals and organizations, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has played a crucial role in establishing a common framework for social, environmental and economic reporting. In 2005 and 2006, Gap Inc. joined a GRI working group to tailor this framework to the apparel industry, creating an Apparel and Footwear Sector Supplement. The working group of about 20 members represented a geographically diverse mix of major brands, leading manufacturers, civil society organizations, trade unions, environmental experts and investors. The GRI’s G3 guidelines and the draft GRI Apparel and Footwear Sector Supplement helped guide us throughout the development of this site. Although it is not in full accordance with either framework, this website provides an index of GRI indicators and the sections of the site to which they apply. Click here to view the GRI indicators and UNGC principles index.

The UNGC seeks to promote responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalization. Since signing onto the UNGC in 2003, we’ve been working to advance its 10 universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. We’ve included the UNGC principles alongside related GRI indicators on this site. Click here to view the GRI indicators and UNGC principles index.

We welcome your feedback as we continue to evolve our social responsibility efforts. Send us an e-mail at social_responsibility@gap.com and let us know what you think.