Post by account_disabled on Feb 28, 2024 22:58:42 GMT -10
There’s no business where there’s no water,” says Melissa Fifield, senior director of sustainable innovation at Gap Inc. She and her team in the global sustainability department work to reduce environmental effects throughout the company’s retail operations.
Conserving water has become a major manufacturing goal for Betting Number Data the global retailer, whose brands include Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta. Last year the San Francisco-based company’s net sales were $16.6 billion.
Water use in manufacturing is not just an environmental issue,” Fifield added. “We see water as a human rights issue, and try to connect the dots every chance that we can.
Recently we caught up with Fifield to find out how Gap Inc. is reducing water usage in manufacturing, and the advantages this creates for the company.
What are Gap Inc.’s water-related sustainability goals?
In 2018 we set a goal to reduce the amount of water used in manufacturing by 10 billion liters by 2020. I’m proud to say that in partnership with our suppliers, we’ve saved 5.7 billion liters to date.
Where does the most water get used?
When we looked at the lifecycle of a pair of jeans — an iconic product across all of our brands — most of the water used in that lifecycle comes from the raw materials, the cultivation of cotton. We are part of the Better Cotton Initiative and were recently recognized as the third biggest user of their cotton. But that’s much farther back in our supply chain.
The areas where we have a bit more influence, for denim in particular, are dyeing and finishing the fabric at the mill stage. This is after it’s been cut and sewn into jeans.
How is Gap Inc. saving water in the manufacturing process?
In the finishing stage, which is largely laundering the product, we developed a program called Washwell focused on saving at least 20% of the water used compared to conventional wash techniques. For example, if it took five cycles to get a particular wash effect for a pair of jeans, this program looks to lower that to four.
For fabric mills, there’s an NRDC program we joined several years ago called Clean by Design focused on 10 basic best practices that, at scale, can have significant impact. It’s water, energy, and chemical use in fabric dyeing — things like capturing steam and reusing that condensate, identifying leaks, implementing better management processes. That contributed to the 5.7 billion liters in savings.
Conserving water has become a major manufacturing goal for Betting Number Data the global retailer, whose brands include Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, and Athleta. Last year the San Francisco-based company’s net sales were $16.6 billion.
Water use in manufacturing is not just an environmental issue,” Fifield added. “We see water as a human rights issue, and try to connect the dots every chance that we can.
Recently we caught up with Fifield to find out how Gap Inc. is reducing water usage in manufacturing, and the advantages this creates for the company.
What are Gap Inc.’s water-related sustainability goals?
In 2018 we set a goal to reduce the amount of water used in manufacturing by 10 billion liters by 2020. I’m proud to say that in partnership with our suppliers, we’ve saved 5.7 billion liters to date.
Where does the most water get used?
When we looked at the lifecycle of a pair of jeans — an iconic product across all of our brands — most of the water used in that lifecycle comes from the raw materials, the cultivation of cotton. We are part of the Better Cotton Initiative and were recently recognized as the third biggest user of their cotton. But that’s much farther back in our supply chain.
The areas where we have a bit more influence, for denim in particular, are dyeing and finishing the fabric at the mill stage. This is after it’s been cut and sewn into jeans.
How is Gap Inc. saving water in the manufacturing process?
In the finishing stage, which is largely laundering the product, we developed a program called Washwell focused on saving at least 20% of the water used compared to conventional wash techniques. For example, if it took five cycles to get a particular wash effect for a pair of jeans, this program looks to lower that to four.
For fabric mills, there’s an NRDC program we joined several years ago called Clean by Design focused on 10 basic best practices that, at scale, can have significant impact. It’s water, energy, and chemical use in fabric dyeing — things like capturing steam and reusing that condensate, identifying leaks, implementing better management processes. That contributed to the 5.7 billion liters in savings.