Gap Inc outlines progress in new impact report
‘Bridging gaps’ is the common thread chosen by Gap Inc. for its latest impact report, released this week. The owner of Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and Athleta had laid out its sustainability goals in 2020, with specific targets for fibre usage, empowering women and youth outreach at the five-year mark.
The San Francisco-based company said it had exceeded its fibre goals as 100% of the cotton it uses is Better Cotton, verified U.S.-grown cotton (USCTP), organic, in conversion (to verified organic), regenerative or recycled. It has set a goal for 45% recycled polyester in its mix and achieved 65% in 2025. These two fibres make up 86% of its fibre mix, with 70% for cotton and 16% for polyester, followed by cellulosics at 7%. Gap is also planning on integrating polyester recycled from textiles and signed a letter of intent with Syre, while Athleta intends to adopt Ambercycle’s cycora textile-to-textile recycled polyester.
The group is also looking to increase the proportion of traced materials in its portfolio, using TextileGenesis’ blockchain platform. In 2025, it said that 165 million garments had thus been fully traced.
Another highlight in 2025 was the launch of Get Blue with Water.org and a consortium of brands to expand access to safe water and sanitation for communities around the world.
With regards to its own employees and those of its suppliers, the report confirmed that 100% of the group’s ‘strategic’ Tier 1 facilities had implemented RISE programmes, a women’s empowerment scheme, leading to nearly 113,000 workers offered an opportunity to build professional and life skills in 2025. With P.A.C.E., another continuing education programme, Gap said that some 1.8 million people had benefitted from these since 2007.
