Companies seeking to achieve supply chain transparency and sustainability will find instructive lessons in the Gap Inc. 2018 Global Sustainability Report.[1] The 2018 highlights in this annual report include a write-up of the company’s Mill Sustainability Program, which the company states “drives transparency, reduces compliance risks and contributes to our sustainability goals.”
“More than a measure of accomplishments, this update serves as a diagnostic inventory of the critical work ahead and targets where we can most effect change,” writes Gap Inc. CEO Art Peck.
The program, started in 2013, focuses on three industry-wide efforts to drive the program:
These three programs drive change in a variety of ways.
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition relies on the Higg Index[5] “to accurately measure and score a company or product’s sustainability performance.” Gap uses the Higg Facility Environmental Module to collect data from suppliers that is verified by a third-party consultant. By digging ever deeper into its supply chain, Gap hopes to achieve a 100% response rate from all suppliers and, thereby, have a database founded on the Higg Index that can be analyzed and mined for trends, opportunities and risks.