Vice President, Global Sustainability

Gap Inc.•San Francisco, CA

About The Position

The Head of Global Sustainability offers a unique opportunity to partner with our senior business leaders to identify solutions that are better for business, better for the consumer, and enable the achievement of Company’s overall sustainability objectives. The role is responsible for innovating, defining, leading and embedding a wide range of strategic initiatives across our global supply chain from sourcing through to distribution and store operations. This critical role enables the Company to bridge equity gaps by leading, evolving, implementing and continuously optimizing our human rights, labor, and women’s empowerment programs across our operations and in partnership with external government, NGO executives and supplier partners. The role supports the Company to bridge opportunity gaps partnering with the Head of Equality and Belonging and by leading programmatic work across distribution centers to enable hiring and a ‘way up’ for at risk youth as well as immigrant and other marginalized communities. The role also oversees our extensive body of industry-leading work to bridge the climate gap, developing policies, practices and compliance frameworks with a focus on chemical, water, waste, and climate. In addition, the role has a leader position on the Gap Foundation, the Company’s global community engagement and employee volunteering body. This role is accountable to the Sustainability and Governance Committee on Gap Inc.’s Board of Directors, for the delivery of all public facing goals across human rights, equity and environment. These goals require management of long-term, multi-million-dollar development budgets and grants to effect industry change. The role also interacts with the Committee, the CEO, Senior Leadership Team, and investors, providing updates on our practices, commitments and progress as well as perspective and expertise on the range of topics included within ESG; in addition, the position serves as Gap Inc.’s executive Sustainability representative on multiple industry coalitions and boards. The role oversees a global team that defines our approaches to developing more sustainable fibers and product circularity practices across our product-to-market cycle, and works in partnership with our supplier compliance and ESG reporting teams to ensure we are measuring, reporting, and complying with regulation. The role will operationalize this work by embedding it further into Gap Inc. culture and every functional area through partnership with our Supply Chain and Global Brand teams. This key role carries enterprise-wide and industry-wide influence and impact, and demands a balance of deep business operations, supply chain and strategy building expertise along with a proven track record of innovation and an understanding of and passion for sustainability practices, challenges, and issues. The role requires detailed understanding of development economics and human rights issues/practices, as well as experience with organized labor and NGOs. The role works to align company-wide action with the existing base of strong values already in place within Gap Inc. and requires strong partnership and collaboration with our human resources and government affairs leaders on a broad range of social issues. This leader will also need to leverage strategic partnerships with other key stakeholders including NGOs, trade unions, industry bodies, and other brands to drive complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives which raise the bar for the entire industry and deliver shared value.

Requirements

15+ years’ experience in increasingly responsible ESG roles, with a solid understanding of the product to market processes and levers in a specialty retail business. General Management experience leading a business and/or direct supply chain experience in retail is an advantage.
Proven experience in leveraging customer and industry insights to develop and execute a cohesive strategy that enhances company reputation and competitive edge; demonstrated ability to turn strategy into execution plans linked to financial plans and targets.
Deep expertise in the range of environmental issues associated with supply chain (international landscape of factories, mills, and transport networks), stores, corporate facilities, and distribution centers, including compliance, waste management, toxins, energy conservation and natural resources as well as key environmental issues and opportunities for sustainable product and product development.
Proven ability to embed sustainability and shared value practices into “how business gets done.”
Deep expertise managing and engaging with government and regulatory bodies around the world, as well as NGO and organized labor leaders for issue resolution and partnership.
Track record of building community program solutions, along with implementation and scaling across multiple countries.
Deep understanding of apparel supply chain and economics.
Strong public speaking and ability to engage and influence at multi-stakeholder policy events.
Ability to influence at Board, CEO and Senior Leadership levels, and externally within government/industry bodies, social/NGOs, and other brands/retailers.
Inspiring leader of others (both direct reports and broader organization) with deep capability in setting direction, assessing and mobilizing resources, and successfully driving results
Ability to analyze large data sets, synthesize into relevant insights, interpret trends, and present complex information in an understandable and compelling manner.
Effective communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to negotiate and build consensus across multiple stakeholders and functions.

Responsibilities

Work with Gap Inc.’s Board, CEO and Senior Leadership Team to identify and drive long-term strategies and initiatives to ensure compliance with sustainability regulation across human rights and climate/environment, and to develop practices that enhance the Company’s reputation and drive competitive advantage. Develop and leverage deep understanding of customer needs and aspirations for Gap Inc. and its brands, to inform the development of this strategy.
Develop consultative partnerships with business leaders on product initiatives for Gap Inc.; drive supply chain sustainability improvements, and continue and accelerate our environmental and human rights leadership across the supply chain
Lead enterprise-wide and/or brand-specific implementation of supplier, product, and environmental affairs programs to improve Gap Inc.’s overall sustainability performance, with a key focus on water, waste, cotton, and women’s empowerment
Collaborate across the company to drive best in class management of product and environmental impacts through design and manufacturing due diligence, regulatory compliance and government relations and the reduction of product environmental impacts.
Oversee and lead all compliance investigations from organized labor, governments and NGOs and the Company’s response to ensure appropriate mitigation and/or management of risk.
Develop strong partnerships with external environmental organizations and governance bodies around the world to ensure Gap Inc. is participating and driving industry-wide enhancements to corporate policy; identify key organizations for Gap Inc. to develop deeper partnerships with, to drive even greater impact.
Enhance corporate governance of supplier sustainability through regular updates to the Gap Inc Board of Directors Governance & Sustainability Committee
Advise as a Director the Gap Foundation activities
Facilitate and lead cross-functional collaboration with leaders and teams responsible for the other parts of Social and the Governance components of the company’s ESG work
Engage with brand executives and sustainability experts across external organizations to shape industry solutions.
Represent Gap Inc. and our brands in the market, highlighting deep understanding of customer, competition, and the retail landscape.
Oversee budget development and lead long-range planning for Sustainability, including investments to reach public goals and the return on such investments.
Recruit, hire, and develop people to drive a culture of high performance and engagement.
Build high capability and team performance by teaching, coaching, and providing meaningful feedback
Uphold the company and brand culture and create an inclusive environment where both customers and employees feel valued, appreciated, and a sense of belonging.