GAP's Sustainability research & Contextual Studies

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https://www.gapincsustainability.com/

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https://www.gapincsustainability.com/

Garment brand – GAP

MADE IN - CHINA

Garment composition – BODY: 100%COTTON/ HOOD: 65%POLYESTER, 35%COTTON

Does the garment brand have a sustainability report?

Research on the brands website to find this information. What does it state?

-Yes, GAP has global sustainability

In terms of environmental protection, the Gap Group mainly focuses on water conservation, energy conservation and raw material procurement. Among them, through cooperation with factories and other companies, 1.3 billion liters of water was saved last year, resulting in a total of 5.7 billion liters of water saved in the past five years. Gap Group is also committed to environmental protection and sustainable development in terms of raw material procurement. In 2016, Gap Group joined the BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) high-quality cotton initiative, proposing that by 2025 100% of the cotton consumption of its brands will come from sustainable sources, among which the well-known brands Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic are expected The goals will be achieved by 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively. At present, the Gap Group continues to increase its procurement of high-quality cotton. It has purchased 120 million pounds of BCI high-quality cotton, which is equivalent to the cotton consumption of 80 million pairs of jeans, ranking third among major companies. In 2018, the Gap Group signed the United Nations Climate Change Fashion Charter, which reduced greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 84,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide in the same year, and made another solid step towards achieving the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2020.

Where is your garment made?

Through research try and identify the key areas of the country that operate garment production industry.

-Made in China. After research the GAP’s website, I think that the key areas of Chinese garment production industry are the fabric, labor forces, big amount of consumers and high technic.

What factory/supplier made it?

Do they comply with sustainable and ethical laws?

-The factory is in Dongguan，Chinese. I think they will comply with sustainable and ethical laws, Because there are many garment factories.

Who made it?

When you have established the area that the garment is made research the economic state of its inhabitants. Do they get paid a living wage?

-from the GAP’s report: We partner with all of our branded-apparel suppliers

and other key stakeholders – including peer companies,

employees, unions, governments, multilateral institutions, NGOs, industry associations, investors and communities – to help provide safe, fair and healthy working conditions for the women and men who create our clothes.

Gap Inc. has developed and implemented a dedicated program for assessing and remediating issues in sourcing facilities; we have also established a suite of capability-building programs focused on women’s empowerment, social dialogue and supervisory skills.

Field teams in our key sourcing countries enable us to partner closely with facilities and local stakeholders, providing thorough, on-the-ground insight into our suppliers' performance and the salient issues that workers in our supply chain face. Our goal is to design, collaborate on and implement industry-leading programs that drive transformative innovation for the apparel-manufacturing sector.

What fabrics/components is your garment made from?

Which country does each fabric/component come from? Calculate the airmiles of each component.

- From the report: Cotton is one of the most important fibers for Gap Inc. We focus our cotton strategy around building fiber security and maintaining a comprehensive evaluation of

cotton-sourcing risks, as well as building a more sustainable source of cotton that is

better for people and the planet. As a crop that is primarily grown in high water-stress

locations such as India, China and Pakistan, cotton is especially vulnerable to water related impacts. We are also seeking to use more sustainable cotton across all of our brands with Gap brand, Banana Republic and Old Navy having committed to use 100 percent sustainable cotton by 2025. As an enterprise, Gap Inc. has also committed to source 100 percent sustainable cotton. This includes Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), recycled and organic cotton.

I think the air mile of cotton maybe from 1300km to 5400km.

Are the fabrics/components sustainable?

Can they be produced with no/minimal damage to the environment?

- Yes, I think so. From GAP’s report: Our products use many types of fibers – natural fibers like cotton and wool, synthetic fibers like polyester and spandex, and pulp-based manufactured cellulosic fibers like rayon and modal. We work to minimize the social and environmental impacts unique to each fiber. We place a special focus on cotton, given its importance to many of our products and water-intensive production process. We are also taking steps to ensure that we source more sustainable synthetic and man-made cellulosic fibers.

Analyse your findings

Responding to the answers you have found how do you now feel about your garment? Does it still have the same value to you? Where you aware of the information you have found? Will these answers effect how you consume fashion in the future? Give a detailed response to your findings. Write a critical analysis/reflection on workflow

First of all, I think sustainability is a really crucial process of making clothing. I think making clothes is not only just make them, but also create them. In my opinion, using sustainable material is a good way to improve designs’ values.

And thinking about the making progress makes me feel more closed to the garment marketing. I learned a lot about the marketing, such as how many parts of a garment factory.

Today’s research about Sustainability report of GAP is really helpful. I feel my GAP jeans jacket is not as simple as I thought before. After learning the sustainability report, I have learned a lot. For example, I never know that there are existing lots of process of making a sustainable clothing. From the report, GAP has saved 5.7 billion liters of water in the past five years. That’s really can help much area. I think it is meaningful if making new clothes can also help others.

Research

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