Gap’s Gone Green

According to Retail Dive, Gap is planning to switch over to “100% sustainable cotton within the next six years.”

Per the article, Gap has committed to using 100% sustainable cotton for its flagship brand “by 2021, Old Navy by 2022 and Banana Republic by 2023,” citing “reducing water use… and limiting the contribution of cotton production to climate change” as the main motivators for the shift.

If you’re wondering what, exactly, is sustainable cotton, the story says it’s “cotton grown by methods approved by the Better Cotton Initiative,” as well as organic, recycled, and “verified American and Australian-grown” cotton, which seems like a pretty broad list.

For those keeping score, this isn’t the first (seemingly) decent thing Gap has done this year: last month, the company announced that all of its brands would be “launching denim with 5% post-consumer mechanically-recycled cotton content.” And, it’s recently begun using a “Life Cycle Analysis” to accurately asses the “complete impact of some of its products,” as well.

Despite the recent do-goodery, a healthy dose of skepticism is still understandable — socially and environmentally, Gap has pretty much been a cartoon villain up until this point. But, it kinda seems like maybe they really are trying to turn it around…?

You can read more about it at Retail Dive.

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