Gap announces water-saving initiative with Arvind

Moving closer to the sustainable goals it set in 2018, Gap Inc. announced a new water-saving initiative with its sourcing partner Arvind Limited. Included in the San Francisco apparel retailer’s plan was the conservation of more than 2.5 billion gallons of water by the end of 2020.

To facilitate this transition, Gap Inc. and the Ahmedabad-based textile manufacturer will launch an 18,000-square-foot innovation centre. By educating apparel and sustainability leaders using new techniques and technology, the partners will use the new site to promote responsible textile manufacturing for a cleaner global clothing-manufacturing industry that relies on the reduction of water use.

“The world is facing a water crisis, and Gap Inc. is committed to finding meaningful, scalable ways to reduce water use. Traditionally, manufacturing apparel has been a water-intensive, water-wasting process,” Art Peck, Gap Inc.’s President and CEO, said.

In addition, the partners will invest in Arvind’s denim mill to develop a new water-treatment facility that will eliminate the use of fresh water in its manufacturing. As the first denim mill in India, Arvind currently utilises more than two million gallons of fresh water each day.

Within the new facility, it will transition to using 100 per cent reclaimed water, which will be sourced from the community’s wastewater and treated through membrane bio reactor (MBR) technology, a technique that uses no chemicals. By moving away from current manufacturing practices, nearly 1 billion gallons of fresh water will be saved by the end of 2020.