Case StudyGAP Case study
Unlocking the Potential of Emission Reduction in Supply Chains with CbD+
Participating in the Apparel Impact Institute’s Clean by Design program has enhanced GAP’s progress towards achieving carbon neutrality in 2050 by accelerating its pace for scopes 1, 2 and 3 and leveraging on resource efficiencies.
Takeaways
Gap is one of the first brands to improve energy and water efficiency in the supply chain and reduce carbon emissions. Since 2013, Gap has been cooperating with professional institutions to carry out energy conservation and emission reduction work in the supply chain.
In 2020, Gap announced the company’s Science-Based Targets with a long-term goal of achieving carbon neutrality across its entire value chain by 2050. Driven by the company’s goals, Gap has accelerated its pace of reducing carbon emissions in scope 1, 2, and 3.
CbD Context
Our first water and energy project in the supply chain was the Clean by Design (CbD) in 2013 and alongside the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). At that time, most factories were in the initial stage of water and energy management. In response to this demand, CbD developed 10 best practices and targeted training for factories to solve relatively basic problems in energy conservation and emission reduction, such as establishing a metering system, recycling of condensate and cooling water, reuse of process water, waste heat recovery, improve boiler efficiency, steam system optimization, compressed air system optimization, pipe/equipment insulation, etc. During this period, we invited about 30 suppliers to participate in the CbD project.
CbD+ Cases:
At the end of 2019, we nominated 3 Gap strategic suppliers and co-nominated 1 supplier with other brand to participate in the CbD+ project. These 4 facilities have participated in CbD or similar energy conservation and emission reduction projects before, and already have a certain foundation in energy and water management. Through on-site visits, in-depth tests, and discussing with the facilities possible opportunities on energy saving and emission reduction, help the facilities to set medium and long-term carbon reduction goals. Due to the impact of the COVID, the project was ended in 2022. By the end of 2021, 4 facilities have achieved a total of 1,333 million liters of water saving, 907,180 GJ of energy saving, and 111,336 tons of GHG reduction. On average, 13 improvement projects were completed, water saving rate is 7.09%, energy saving rate is 13.3%, and carbon reduction rate is 13.69%; according to expert team’s recommendations, set up medium and long-term improvement plans and emission reduction targets, it is expected that by 2025, 4 facilities will complete 20.5 improvement items on average, save water by 40.1%, save energy by 22.28%, reduce carbon emissions by 27.55%.
CbD+ Achievements (4 mill facilities):
The pilot project of CbD+ has given us great confidence that most enterprises still have big potential to be tapped in terms of energy conservation and emission reduction.
We encourage other brands of this industry to join us in the sustainability journey.
In the past two years, we have invited more suppliers to participate in CbD+ projects, and we are also looking for other ways to reduce carbon emissions. For example, we continue to cooperate with Aii and other professional institutions to participate in Renewable Energy projects in China, Coal Phase-out project in Vietnam, Carbon Leadership Programs (CLP) in multiple countries, etc.
We are committed to trying our best to contribute to the climate agenda.
