Old Navy

How sustainable is Old Navy?

This scree­ning has been done by Fai­rify on March 31^st 2020

Old Navy is a glo­bal appa­rel brand by Gap Inc. The mother cor­po­ra­tion sta­tes that it’s a mis­sion-dri­ven com­pany that prio­ri­ti­zes sus­tai­na­bi­lity and that its brands are a for­ce for good. But with a reve­nue of over 16 billion USD and a serious lack of trans­pa­rency in its repor­ting for all seven of its brands, this is a very bold statement.

A lack of ambition

Gap Inc. doesn’t pro­vi­de any infor­ma­tion on its mate­rial sour­cing. The com­pany sta­tes that it’s wor­king on impro­ving the amount of more sus­tai­na­ble mate­rials and fibers in its clothing, but doesn’t pro­vi­de any rele­vant data on what it actually uses currently. The same goes for its car­bon foot­print. The com­pany has not yet mea­su­red or published the car­bon foot­print of its supply chain, which makes it impos­si­ble to set a Scien­ce Based Reduc­tion tar­get for its full ope­ra­tions. For Gap Inc.’s own ope­ra­tions, which inclu­de their 3,345 sto­res world­wi­de, it does have a 50% reduc­tion tar­get by 2020 in pla­ce, but the com­pany sta­tes its not on track to achie­ve this target.

Unfair supply chain

The first signs of impro­ve­ment are the­re though. Gap Inc. is repor­ting through the Car­bon Dis­clo­su­re Pro­ject and has imple­men­ted the Higg Index to collect envi­ron­men­tal per­for­man­ce data in its supply chain. Trac­king and publishing envi­ron­men­tal per­for­man­ce in its supply chain is the first step towards reduc­tion of its car­bon emis­sions, energy use and water con­sum­ption. The com­pany has also published a list of fac­to­ries in its supply chain, which offers us insight into whe­re its fac­to­ries are loca­ted. Whi­le the com­pany has been con­nec­ted to seve­re labor vio­la­tions in its supply chain in the past, wor­kers’ rights seem to be impro­ving. Gap Inc. is a mem­ber of the Ethi­cal Tra­ding Initia­ti­ve, which moni­tors its supply chain inde­pen­dently and ensu­res that the ETI Base Code, inclu­ding fac­tors like decent wages and wor­king hours, is lived up to. Howe­ver, the­re is no proof that an actual living wage is being paid.

Risk of animal abuse

Ani­mal wel­fa­re is not being ensu­red either. The infor­ma­tion Gap Inc. pro­vi­des in its ani­mal wel­fa­re policy and sus­tai­na­bi­lity report offers little to no data on the actual ori­gins of the mate­rials the com­pany uses in its clothing, which lea­ves us to con­clu­de it lar­gely uses ani­mal mate­rials from uncer­ti­fied sources.

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