Photographing environmental issues for a sustainable future.
Archive for September, 2009
Earthkeeping in Egypt
Ramadan is the Islamic month of fasting, in which Muslims refrain from eating, drinking and smoking from sun-up until sundown … a time to ask for guidance and forgiveness, and to practice self-restraint and good deeds.
Timberland’s team in Egypt took the “good deeds” piece to heart this year, hosting their annual Serv-a-palooza community service day in the middle of Ramadan for the benefit of a local school in need. 35 volunteers spent the day installing a water tank and pump (the school previously had no water access), cleaning, painting and landscaping the school grounds, and distributing packets of school supplies and flu prevention information to more than 600 students.
If our volunteers were experiencing any lack of energy due to the fast, it wasn’t evident in the effort and enthusiasm they brought to their service day:
Timberland Egypt reminds us that critical needs exist every day of the year, all around the globe; our thanks to them for inspiring the rest of us to take on more good deeds.
Who Wants to Be a Green Guru?
Now through October 16th, we’re holding a gaming tournament on our Earthkeepers Hero: Mission Possible Facebook trivia game to determine who is the Ultimate Green Trivia Guru.
The person that earns the most points and is able to unseat our reigning Earthkeeper Hero Champion, Greena Garbo, will be awarded:
- A CASH PRIZE! of $1000 for themselves
- $500 for the environmental non-profit of their choice
- Bragging rights as the Ultimate Green Trivia Guru (Priceless or tasteless? You decide.)
Enter and start playing today to be the top player in our Hall of Fame, win a fabulous prize, and earn the opportunity to help a great cause.
More details about the contest, including important instructions on how to download and start playing the game, can be found at http://bit.ly/EKGAME_CONTEST.
May the best Earthkeeper win!
More Trees in China
As part of yesterday’s announcement about China’s commitment to decreasing its carbon emissions, Chinese president Hu Jintao pledged that his country would plant forests across an area the size of Norway . Whether you’re among the critics who don’t believe China’s commitment was specific enough, or among supporters who consider it a positive first step, you’ve got to admit – that’s a lot of trees.
As a company with a penchant for tree-planting (although we have yet to take on any projects of Norway proportions), we’re encouraged to see reforestation at the top of China’s environmental task list. Rapid population growth and over-use of land has contributed to the issue of desertification all over the world — including in China, where traveling dust storms create widespread air quality problems and natural resources have grown scarce for local residents.
Over the last 6 years, Timberland employees in Asia have partnered with GreenNet, a Japan-based NGO, to plant trees in Inner Mongolia’s Horqin Desert – an area that originated as grassland and has over the course of time become a desert the size of Switzerland . Our partnership with GreenNet is expected to yield 980,000 trees planted by the end of 2009 … well on track to meet our goal of planting one million trees in the Horqin by 2010 . (You can read more about our tree planting efforts in Earthkeepers’ “Horqin Chronicles” blog series.)
Do we think planting a million trees in Inner Mongolia is going to solve Asia’s environmental issues? No more than planting 500 in Barcelona … or 10 in the Dominican Republic … or one in your own backyard. But we believe any action is better than inaction … and that cumulative effort, whether on the scale of a city block or a forest the size of Norway, contributes in a meaningful way to creating climate solutions.
Store-Front Sustainability
Earthkeeper Hero Cate Trotter has had a busy month of hosting trend tours , which showcase all that’s hip and green in London. The theme of one of her more popular trend tours these days is “Green Retail” … and as it so happens, Timberland’s Regent Street store is one of her featured tour stops! (We couldn’t be prouder.)
Cate’s retail trend tours are designed to inspire creative teams and entrepreneurs to rethink their own retail spaces with an eye toward sustainability. What makes our Regent Street store sustainable enough to make Cate’s cut?
- Physical elements such as reclaimed timber and repurposed seating (old cinema seats work just as well for weary shoe shoppers).
- Open space, flexible displays and walls with interchangeable panels – key to refreshing the store’s interior design more easily and efficiently, without starting from scratch (and without creating more material waste).
- “Storytelling” elements which speak (quietly, not in-your-face) to our corporate commitment to the environment.
We’re thrilled to be featured in Cate’s trend tours … and would love to hear from you which other retailers you think are showcasing sustainability in an effective way.
To keep up on Cate’s latest trendspotting, follow her story anytime on Changents.com .
Climbing for a Cause
It’s been a little quiet at Timberland’s European headquarters this week, and with good reason. 10 of our colleagues there just completed the 3 Peaks Challenge: climbing (and traveling between) the tallest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales … in a 24 hour period.
The challenge included conquering Ben Nevis , Scafell Pike and Snowdon … equivalent to climbing about 10,000 feet — or just over half of Mount Kilimanjaro .
The Ben
Did we mention the 24-hour time limit?
Despite a couple of injuries, the agony of a 5-hour drive through traffic in a crowded mini-van and sheer exhaustion, Team Timberland did it – beating the 24-hour time limit by a full hour and 15 minutes. (No doubt their high-quality Timberland gear made them faster and stronger.)
Scafell Pike
Nothing feels quite as good as meeting and beating a physical challenge (particularly in breathtaking surroundings such as these) … but contributing to a cause greater than your own accomplishment is a near second. The Timberland team participated in this year’s 3 Peaks Challenge on behalf of TRAID – one of Timberland’s non-profit partners, and an organization near and dear to many of us. TRAID (Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development) operates over 900 textile recycling banks across the UK where consumers can donate clothing (less in the landfill!), which is then sold back to the public through one of TRAID’s shops or repurposed in designer original “TRAIDremade ” pieces. TRAID’s proceeds support their UK work and also fund overseas development projects .
Our 3 Peaks Challenge team has a lot to be proud of: scaling three mountains in one day and raising nearly 6,000 pounds for the important work TRAID is doing to reduce waste and support developing communities. No wonder they’re so tired.
Thanks to our UK team for sharing their story of extreme Earthkeeping with us. To learn more about TRAID, including how you can contribute to their effort, please visit their website.
Remembering
Eight years ago today, this was a different world. Instead of a grey day in New Hampshire, it was a bright blue morning in New York City. We were in mid-town, a group of Timberland execs, some of our customers, and a few business partners, finishing up a sales meeting. All about selling boots. To conclude the conference, we had scheduled a day of community service. Yeah, I know, golf is the usual corporate thing–but a) I suck at golf, b) golf courses are environmentally unfriendly, and c) we actually believe that part of running a for-profit business is being actively invested in the communities you work and live in. So eight years ago today we were in New York, heading off to service.
Early this morning I was re-reading the note that I wrote at the end of that day. After a day in which our world changed forever, the same group of Timberland folks were on a bus we bought (it’s a long story, but it was hard to get out of New York City that night), flying along some parkway in Connecticut, silent and sad. Below is part of what I wrote to our global community as a small group of us rumbled home toward our families:
As we stood on 5th Avenue this morning, and saw the flames and smoke from the World Trade Center, as we waited to board buses to take us from the safety and security and comfort of midtown Manhattan to the one of the bleakest neighborhoods in urban America—as we stood there, our hearts melted. And our fears multiplied. And our hearts raced.
But we went, from midtown to the Bronx. And by the time the ride was over, the news was clearer, and the emerging clarity did just the opposite of what it usually does—instead of feeling more confident as we knew more, we felt less comfort, more nausea.
When we got off the buses, I told everyone what we knew, and asked the 125 men and women assembled what was in their hearts. Should we stay, and do the planned day of service at the Clara Barton School in the Bronx, or should we try to find a way out of New York, away from the horror and the fear? And in small quiet groups of people, the decision was made, to stay, and to serve.
And so a small group of people, on a small concrete patch in the Bronx, responded to hatred with love today. They met anger with kindness. They exacted revenge—but the revenge of sweat in good purpose, rather than the revenge of blood spilled in rage. While we called our families, and consoled each other, and reeled at the news, we stood together, and we served together. We showed a group of children that there are competing models for how the adult world can work. There is the model of destruction, and hatred, and despair, and by contrast, there is the model of creation, and community and even congregation—different people, committed to the common goal and good. (Clara Barton’s) Principal Parker told us that he would always remember today for the evil that was done, and he would never forget today for the goodness that was wrought.
Our hearts grieve with all who have lost, and our prayers, from our different traditions and faiths and personal points of view are united in gratitude to those brave men and women who struggle to protect us, and care for the hurt, and rescue the injured. May all who are grieved be comforted. May each and every broken body and heart and mind be mended, completely and speedily. And may each of us find within ourselves the strength to affirm what is expected of us—to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly, with our God and with our fellows.
Eight years ago, we promised the kids at that school that we would return and serve with them, every 9.11 until every one of them had graduated from the school. Eight years ago we promised…and today, we showed up, again. Even though none of the kids in the school today were Clara Barton students that first 9.11; all of those students have grown up and moved on.
Funny; the kids have moved on, but we can’t. So, we keep going back. For the same reason we stayed that first day; each of us had his/her reason, but together we needed to stay.
In these days, riven with fear, characterized by polarity….what’s a bootmaker, or a bricklayer, or a candlestick maker to do? When we’re not sure….we get up from our desks, and we go out into the world, and we serve. We do what we can to repair the tears and gashes in the civic space around us, and while we are serving…we shore up our own souls, strengthen ourselves for the journey of adult living in a crazy world.
As the song says…love is love, and not….fade away.
We remember.
Jeff Swartz
President & CEO, Timberland
