Gap is trying to create transparent working conditions in Asian garment factories. For this, it is partnering with an investment fund which hopes to raise a billion dollars and transform the Asian garment factories that make much of the world’s clothing. The fund’s pitch to factory owners is that its capital and ideas will help turn a decent facility into a high class one.

The fund intends to buy minority stakes in factories and then upgrade environmental standards, improve labor conditions, and install technology that can raise productivity and increase transparency. The goal is to cultivate factories that are the apparel industry’s most radically transparent and compliant.

For Gap, the agreement with the investment fund is essentially a cost-free opportunity to give the vendors who produce its goods the possibility of a value add in the form of expertise or funding for some of their new ventures. Another benefit of the agreement is that it will Gap reduce production lead times. The brand sees this as a way of connecting the factory worker to its consumers.

Gap is the parent company of Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy. In India, a Gap initiative provides education and life-skills training to women who sew Gap clothing in factories.

www.gap.com/