Gap

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company has group-wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain.

Water
The company provides evidence of engaging with upstream business partners to reduce water withdrawal. Through its partnership with ISC (part of the W+W Alliance), Gap worked with cotton farmers to implement best practices to reduce water use. The company has targets to reduce water pollution and reports progress against them. The company requires access to water and sanitation, including refraining from negatively affecting access to safe water, to be included in contractual arrangements with its business relationships. The company works with its business relationships to improve their practices regarding access to water and sanitation.

Solid and air pollution
The company provides qualitative evidence of how it is working to eliminate all PFC-based finishes, from its supply chain. Some 38% of products with water- or stain-repellent finishes were made using non-PFC-based finishes. Gap successfully converted or exited 92% of fabrics with a PFC-based finish and is on track to reach 100% by 2023. The company also reports some activities to reduce plastic use and waste in its own operations. For example, to address the issue of microplastics from fibre shedding, Gap signed on to the Microfibre Roadmap as part of its commitment to The Microfibre Consortium.

GHG emissions
In 2017, Gap signed on to the Science Based Targets initiative to align its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions reduction targets with the scientific consensus and core commitment of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to less than 1.5 degrees.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion and community impact area.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. The company reports consistently against all its targets. No evidence was found that the company links performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues. The company does not disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise regarding nature-related topics.

Stakeholder engagement
The company does not disclose how it engages with stakeholders, nor the issues it raises during such activities.

Lobbying
The company discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member wherever it operates. However, it does not disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with nature-positive policies. Nor does it report (potential) misalignment between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and nature-positive policies.

Impact and dependencies assessment 
The company has not holistically assessed its impacts or how it depends on nature, including biodiversity. It has an opportunity to start such an assessment across its value chains, focused on quantification of its impacts or dependencies. 

Key areas and species
The company does not disclose key species or areas important for biodiversity affected by its operations or suppliers. It has an opportunity to increase its transparency. 

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
The company does not have a commitment to ensure zero conversion. The company discloses some activities to achieve conversion-free supply chains but does not have time-bound targets to achieve conversion-free supply chains. The company has a commitment to minimise ecosystem conversion. It discloses some activities to minimise ecosystem conversion but is not committed to restoring ecosystems. The company does not disclose details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers. 

Resource exploitation and circularity
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to work towards a circular economy or which organisms it exploits. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets. The company discloses activities to improve soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices but does not have a related target. 

Water 
No quantitative evidence was found of reductions in water withdrawal across the company’s own operations. The company does not disclose a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations. Nor does it report how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. The company reports a decrease in water pollution and discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. However, it does not regularly report on water pollution. The company does not disclose a commitment to respect the right to water, nor does it disclose its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations. 

Solid and air pollution
The company does not commit to avoid developing or marketing new chemicals or products with SVHC (substance of very high concern) properties. The company is not reducing the production of hazardous waste but is reducing plastic use and waste in its own operations. The company does not report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. The company does not report on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants, nor does it report time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain. 

GHG emissions 
The company is reducing its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. It has a time-bound target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions and reports progress against the target. The company is also reducing its scope 3 emissions. It has a time-bound reduction target for its scope 3 emissions and reports progress against it. 

Invasive species 
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive species in its own operations.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company does not show if it is committed to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment or to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not show if it is committed to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

There is no evidence that the company describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities, covering its own operations. However, the company does describe the process for identifying human rights risks and impacts in its business relationships. The company describes its process(es) for assessing its human rights risks and discloses what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. While the company discloses that it conducts routine human rights risk assessments and that it remediates in locations with the highest risk, no evidence was found that it has a global system to act on all its salient human rights issues. The company provides a case study describing how it has acted on a salient human rights risk issue. While the company discloses the categories of stakeholders it engages with generally on sustainability issues, it is not clear if these stakeholders are those whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. The company engages with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities.

The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect the health and safety of its own workers and expecting its suppliers to do the same. There is no evidence that the company discloses a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the company describes how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates. While the company states that it expects its suppliers to pay wages that are sufficient for workers and their families to fulfil their basic needs, it has an opportunity to disclose how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers. There is no evidence that the company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. However, the company describes how it works to support the practices of its suppliers in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

The company discloses a tax strategy, but it is not applicable to all its operations. The company takes steps to identify and address bribery and corruption, but there is no evidence that it includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. In a public policy statement, the company discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement. However, there is no evidence that the company has a publicly available policy statement that specifies that it does not make political contributions.