Your Green Review

Company Name: Timberland

Company Type: Privately Owned

URL/Location: www.Timberland.com

Company Description: Timberland is a privately owned clothing company that specializes in making comfortable yet rugged boots, shoes, clothes and gear.  Timberland’s mission is to “…equip people to make a difference in their world. We do this by creating outstanding products and by trying to make a difference in the communities where we live and work.”

Sustainable Business Practices:

• Every shoe now carries a ‘nutritional label’ to inform consumers about climate impact, chemicals used and resources consumed in making each pair of shoes.  Timberland uses the Green Index to calculate its figures
• Measures kWh consumed in production of its shoes.  In 2007, this was 2.79kWh/pair.
• Is working with suppliers to phase out carbon-intense products and encourage them to implement sustainable business practices to lessen Timberland’s overall environmental impact.
• Launched a factory-based program to recycle cutting scraps
• Offers $3,000 rebate incentives to employees who purchase hybrid cars
• Launched a multi-brand environmental audit for leather tanneries in 2006 to minimize chemical usage and improve environmental performance.

Sustainable Products/Materials:

• Publishes comprehensive CSR reports every other year with quarterly reporting on key performance indicators like Energy, Product, Workplace and Service.
• Has volunteered to eliminate PVC from products where suitable alternatives are available by 2008
• Uses water-based adhesives (WBA) in stockfit and assembly: 34.3 million of its shoes in 2008.
• Has converted over 5% of overall cotton purchases and 100% of promotional t-shirts to organic cotton.
• Footwear packaging uses minimal inks that are all soy-based and made from 100% post-consumer recycled content cardboard
• Almost 80% of all footwear styles feature some recycled content
• Cuts down on plastic generation through their “Trash Is My Bag” tote made from recycled plastic bottles ($5.50, free with a $100 purchase and guarantee 10 percent off the next purchase)

Green Building:

• Became LEED Gold certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for its Peabody, MA retail store and by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED Silver certified for its Salem, NH retail store.  Timberland met LEED certification standards by doing the following:
  • Using 100% reclaimed lumber
  • Repurposing 100% of stockroom shelving
  • Reducing water usage by 50% with specialized water technologies
  • Ensuring that 90% of equipment and appliances installed are Energy Star eligible resulting in optimized energy performance
  • Recycling construction waste
  • 90% of construction waste recycled at Peabody, MA store
  • 50% of construction waste recycled at Salem, NH store
• Achieved over 40% energy and emission reduction in 2004 at Timberland’s largest facilities following energy-efficiency improvements
• Generates approximately 60% of its energy needs through solar power at the Ontario (California) Distribution Center.

Future Goals:

• In 2009:
  • Volunteer over 76,000 service hours and encourage 80% of employees to use some of their community service hours
  • Ensure 95% of service projects meet elements of the GREEN standard
  • Build 15 community gardens worldwide (by 2009).
  • Refurbish or build over 80 playgrounds (by 2009).

• By 2010:
  • Make all Timberland facilities ‘Carbon Neutral by 2010′, verifying Greenhouse Gas emissions through a third-party system
  • Reduce employee travel emissions by 25% by 2010
  • Reduce working hours violations to 30% of supply chain by 2010
  • Plant over 1 million trees in Mongolia’s Horquin Dessert through a partnership with GreenNet
  • Increase organic material use to a minimum of 10% (by 2010 to over 1 million pounds of cotton)
• By 2015:
  • To use 60% renewable energy by 2015

Resources:

View Quarterly CSR reports

View Sustainable Business Practices on the Timberland website