The
Good
Glossary

Materials

Animal Welfare Policy: We are committed to the humane treatment of animals. Our animal welfare policy prohibits the use of fur, angora, and mohair, as well as practices including live plucking and mulesing. For more details, visit gapincsustainability.com/sites/default/files/animal-welfare-policy.pdf

Lenzing™ Ecovero™: Ecovero™ is a wood-based fiber produced using pulp derived from responsibly managed forests and manufactured with significantly lower emissions and less water than generic viscose.

Organic Cotton: Organic cotton is better for people and the environment because it's grown without the use of harmful synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.

Organic Farming: Organic farming aims to create stable ecosystems by rotating crops, utilizing well-adapted seeds, maintaining healthy soil, and applying organic fertilizers and manures instead of chemicals.

Preferred Fibers Toolkit: Our toolkit includes an evaluation of raw material choices that builds upon data inputs from the Sustainable Apparel Coalition's (SAC) Higg Materials Sustainability Index. It also incorporates other holistic indicators to consider environmental and social considerations. Building on the toolkit, Gap Inc. and Textile Exchange are proud to announce the public release of the Preferred Fiber and Material Matrix, a resource for sourcing and design teams to inform companies on meeting their sustainability goals. Learn more at textileexchange.org/pfm-matrix

Recycled: Using recycled materials help us minimize our impact on the planet. Compared to virgin materials, recycled materials help keep waste out of landfills while also reducing carbon emissions.

Responsible Down Standard (RDS): RDS aims to ensure that down and feathers come from animals that have not been subjected to any unnecessary harm.

Verified American-Grown Cotton: As members of the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, we participate in a program for U.S.-grown cotton that supports best practices and continuous improvement in key areas, including soil health, water management, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The Trust Protocol uses verified data to drive impact and brands participate through the Mass Balance System. For more details, visit trustuscotton.org.

Wood-Derived Fabric Policy: Our wood-derived fabric policy, which we developed in partnership with CanopyStyle, Canopy's sustainable fashion and forestry initiative, to ensure our suppliers do not use wood from ancient, endangered, high-conservation or high carbon–value forest areas to make cellulose-based textiles, including rayon, modal, viscose, and lyocell.

Water

Washwell™: Developed in 2016, our Washwell™ program uses at least 20% less water compared to conventional garment-wash methods.

Water-Quality Program: Developed in 2003, the Gap Inc. Water-Quality Program aims to ensure our jeans are made in a way that protects local waterways and minimizes impact on the planet.

Women + Water Program: Our Women + Water strategy focuses on the intersection between our industry's significant use of water and the human right to clean, safe water, and targets three key areas: partnering with fabric mills and laundries to reduce manufacturing impacts; building awareness and educating the women who make our clothes about safe water-handling practices, and by increasing their access to safe water; and adopting more water-efficient product design and sourcing practices. Learn more at gapincsustainability.com/environment/creating-solutions-women-water

Chemicals

Restricted Substance List (RSL): Our Restricted Substances List prohibits suppliers from using certain chemicals that are harmful to people and the planet. In addition to protecting customers, our policies were put in place to address environmental pollution and protect garment workers from exposure to harmful chemicals.

Zero Discharge Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) As a ZDHC Signatory Brand, we require our suppliers to follow the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme, which includes registering with the ZDHC Gateway, maintaining a chemical inventory list, and using input chemicals that comply with ZDHC's guidelines. We joined ZDHC's Roadmap to Zero commitment in 2014 to work toward the elimination of hazardous chemicals in our supply chain. We integrated ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme tools and resources, such as the Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) and Wastewater Guidelines, into our Mill Sustainability Program. Since 2018, we have required our strategic mills to test their wastewater twice a year and publish the results through the ZDHC Gateway. Learn more at roadmaptozero.com/input#Gateway-Chemical-Module.

Support for Workers

Capability-Building Programs: In partnership with our suppliers, we developed a suite of programs that aim to develop facilities' capabilities for worker representation and leadership involvement.

• Workplace Cooperation Program (WCP): We believe that improving dialogue and relations between workers and management can help prevent labor disputes, resolve problems, give greater voice to workers, and improve productivity and competitiveness. Our Workplace Cooperation Program (WCP) sets up committees that comprise of both workers and management representatives who are trained to work together to help address workplace issues, from overtime and worker well-being to washroom sanitation and better quality of food in the canteen.
• Supervisory Skills Training: We launched the Supervisory Skills Training (SST) program to reach mid-level managers and provide them with the skills to improve communication with workers. SST gives supervisors and middle managers a deeper understanding of important leadership and supervisory concepts. Participants are trained to avoid a passive or authoritarian style of leadership, and to strike a fair balance between the interests of the company and the interests of staff.
• Prevention of Sexual Harassment: Gap Inc.'s Supplier Sustainability team works with our suppliers to help build an environment where they clearly define and implement policies for Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) and create an Internal Complaints Committee to address issues of discrimination and harassment. We aim to help our suppliers raise awareness about this issue and the rights and responsibilities of male and female employees, including managers.

Gap Inc. Code of Vendor Conduct: Since launching our Supplier Sustainability program in 1994, we transformed our approach to improving facility working conditions by developing innovative, holistic programs that leverage assessments (audits) and remediation of our supply chain to ensure compliance to our Code of Vendor Conduct. We believe that by working together, we can achieve our commitments to improve workers' well-being, protect human rights, reduce environmental impacts, and improve business performance.

Mill Sustainability Program: Our Mill Sustainability Program focuses on driving transparency and innovation while reducing compliance risks and contributing to our corporate sustainability goals. By leveraging partnerships, we can analyze and improve the environmental performance of our supply chain. Our suppliers' involvement is key to our ability to calculate our energy, Greenhouse Gas, and water baselines, which support progress toward our new science-based target for our Scope 3 GHG emissions and help us build a more water-resilient supply chain. The program also helps drive improvements in social performance at mills. Learn more at gapincsustainability.com/environment/improving-manufacturing-mills-and-laundries.

Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement Program (P.A.C.E.): P.A.C.E. is Gap Inc.'s educational program that helps the women who make our clothes build the skills, knowledge, confidence, and resilience needed to advance in work and life. Learn more at gap.com/pace. We continue to share our program curriculum with other retailers via Empower@work.

Waste

Circularity: Materials are valuable, and one of the best things we can do is keep those materials in use for as long as possible and help ensure they never become waste. Joining the circular economy means shifting our thinking about design, how we wear and care for products, and where products eventually go, so that they can get reused and recycled. To do so, we are building programs to address product end of life and create circular design systems that reduce waste and increase recycling, upcycling, and reuse.

ReGap: ReGap is our way of saying, "Share the good." We obsess over every stitch and detail, so each Gap piece has the quality to hold up — and pass along. From big kid to little kid, mom to daughter, friend to friend.

Single Use Plastic: We set a goal to eliminate single-use plastics in our operations by 2030. We aim to achieve this goal through a combination of methods — eliminating packaging where possible, reducing thickness to reduce the overall amount of plastic used, converting to recycled plastic and/or biodegradable materials where possible.

Upcycling: When materials are re-used in a way that adds value to the product, we call that upcycling. The opposite of upcycling is downcycling — still a form of recycling, but one where the new product has less value than the original.