Kindley Walsh Lawlor has her hands full bringing ECO, Gap Inc.’s sweeping sustainability program, to the design tables and retail outlets of Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic. Read on for her advice on making a top-down corporate sustainability initiative work at the brand level.

SLM: What's "ECO"?

Kindley: ECO was created last year as a way of focusing Gap Inc.'s environmental strategy. We wanted to develop an acronym that was easy to understand and easy to remember, because this is really the tool that we use while working on sustainability issues within our company, among our brands and with our external partners. "ECO" stands for (E) energy conservation, (C) cotton or sustainable design, and (O) output or waste. These are the non-negotiables that we believe we need to focus on day-to-day, at both the corporate and brand levels.

SLM: What are some of the initiatives you're working on under the ECO umbrella, and how do the programs break down along corporate- or brand-driven lines?

Kindley: This is where a simple acronym like ECO comes in handy - we're working on so many things, it’s easiest to talk about things letter by letter.

Energy conservation. We're installing a solar array at our Fresno, Calif., distribution center, slated for completion this fall. That's a corporate environmental affairs initiative. At the store level, our retail outlets and distribution centers have done an incredible job with lighting retrofits to conserve energy and cut costs.

Cotton and sustainable design. Gap Inc. last year created a Sustainable Design Toolkit for brand-level employees involved with fabric R&D and product design. It's an educational resource that shows environmental impacts and opportunities for everything from alternative fibers to wash and dye processes. One of our brands, Banana Republic, used that toolkit to guide its sustainable clothing collections for both men and women, launched in April of this year.

Output or waste. We're spearheading a recycling initiative to divert waste from landfill at the mall level. We're working with 15 other apparel brands, along with leading commercial property owners, to ensure that recyclable items such as corrugated cardboard, mixed paper, and plastic bags can be recovered and converted for reuse. We really see this initiative as an extension of our corporate commitment to reduce, reuse, and recycle. For example, we've got aggressive recycling and composting programs in place at our employee cafeterias. In essence, our corporate environmental strategy helps validate and support what our brands are doing at the ground level.

SLM: A lot of companies begin by creating an environmental strategy and then tasking their PR or marketing departments with communicating the initiative, both internally to employees and externally to consumers. But it sounds like Gap's ECO program was created with the communications piece in mind.

Kindley: I think it really stems back to Gap Inc.'s commitment about a decade ago to social responsibility and ethical sourcing. The team that began this work at the factory level prized transparency and communication, so when we started reporting on our progress in those areas we were naturally very open about what we had accomplished and what we have left to do. It's partly about external messaging, but even more about changing the DNA of how the company operates. Our ethical sourcing commitment really changed our production and decisionmaking processes. That's the foundation that we're building on with our environmental work.

SLM: Are you tailoring your sustainability message by brand, i.e. Old Navy, which caters to a younger market, versus Banana Republic, which caters to older, more sophisticated consumers?

Kindley: Gap Inc. doesn't necessarily market itself as a socially responsible company. We report to stakeholders, but it's a very different approach than a brand might take in talking about these efforts. Gap, for example, started talking about their social programs about a year and a half ago with the (PRODUCT) RED campaign. Banana Republic started talking about sustainability this spring with their new collections under the tagline "Greener. One step at a time." Both of those campaigns emphasize incremental achievements that don't change the world immediately but do have a positive effect.

It's our responsibility at the corporate level to clearly understand the differences between the Banana Republic customer, the Gap customer, and the Old Navy customer, and to tailor our advice to brands based on those specifics. So, for example, when Banana Republic started thinking about how to tell this story to their customers, it was a sophisticated message delivered online and a subtle message delivered in-store. That's an appropriate way to message to Banana's target market.

Ultimately, though, it's the brand’s decision what and how they want to share their sustainability efforts.

SLM: As senior director of strategic planning and environmental affairs for all these different brands, what's your biggest challenge at the moment?

Kindley: This is my full-time job - but it isn't anyone else's. People have to perform their regular job duties and at the same time remember a lot of the things we're asking them to do from a sustainability standpoint. We have amazing stories of individual employees that are so motivated by these issues that they create their own grassroots projects and programs for greener sourcing or design processes. We are, in a sense, a kind of think-tank for them, helping to alleviate some of the pressure of getting their own jobs done while also pushing through some of the newer ideas.

SLM: What are you aiming for in terms of supporting and communicating these sustainability initiatives at the brand level? How do you measure success?

Kindley: The first thing I look for is awareness. I like to keep an eye on who we've talked to and whether they've passed the information along to other team members. We sponsor occasional "green bag" lunch meetings to discuss sustainability programs with various groups, and I've noticed employees from other units just dropping in to listen.

Second, I have to make sure our message is resonating with the people who ultimately do the work. I don't want employees to be confused or uncertain about the value of their efforts to, for example, source bamboo materials for handbags. I want to know that we're capturing and transmitting the information in a way that's engaging - essentially creating an authentic story as to how these brands are operating in terms of sustainability.

SLM: Do you have any additional advice for so-called "sustainability czars" at other large companies?

Kindley: If you're doing this kind of work, you need not only a personal passion for sustainability but also the ability to let that passion shine through and inspire others. Don't preach or dictate; instead, offer solutions. Finally, consider creating an "environmental think-tank," as Gap Inc. did a few months ago, composed of key decisionmakers involved with all aspects of the business, from strategy to operations to marketing. Choose influential people who aren't necessarily the “treehugger” type. You want people who understand how to prioritize from a business perspective. That's another great way of integrating sustainability into the DNA of the company.

Hear Kindley speak live at Sustainable Brands ’08!