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Timberland to visit Dartmouth Tuck MBA Students
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Description:
On April 8, 2009 Timberland's CSR team will visit Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. We look forward to giving these future leaders an overview of our CSR strategy and will dialogue with them on Just Means before and after the visit.
For our other Just Means stakeholders, feel free to join this discussion online!
Please note: this event is primarily designed for Dartmouth Tuck MBA students. Timberland often receives requests to visit student groups and reviews them on a quarterly basis. Unfortunately we are not able to accommodate all requests. If your school is interested, please let us know by emailing us at csrinfo@timberland.com.
Welcome Dartmouth Tuck MBA students! We're interested in your comments about our CSR programs and hope you will visit our Report pages (accessible from our Just Means homepage) to review and comment on our Q4 and year end 2008 performance in the following categories:
- Q4 2008 Dashboard
- Q4 2008 Energy Data
- Q4 2008 Product Data
- Q4 2008 Workplace Data
- Q4 2008 Service Data
- Q4 2008 Factory List
We're also interested in your feedback - here's a specific question to kick off our dialogue: What role do you think CSR plays in building a brand?
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Recent Comment
Yasuhiro Osako | Posted: 7 April 2009
I would like to ask how Timberland apply those CSR standarized indice to the factories all over the world. The factories represent different nationality, culture and educational background etc and I feel that it is sometimes difficult to make people understand them.
Milagros Saenz | Posted: 7 April 2009
I would also want to ask what is the background of the persons who visit this web page and look at the reports? are they educated people used to analyzing intense data? are they all well informed activists? Otherwise I think the information provided is not appropriate for the average person that doesn't want and doesn't need to spend much time analyzing it and trying to understand it.
Micah Moreau | Posted: 7 April 2009
One (admittedly debatable) aspect of CSR that I have not seen addressed is socially responsible investing. Does Timberland consider SRI a part of CSR and if so, how is it addressed (e.g. 401K program investments in one of Domini Social Investments mutual funds)?
Milagros Saenz | Posted: 7 April 2009
I have to agree with Adam, when I look at the reports I not only get overwhelmed by numbers, but by the lack of "friendliness" of the data posted. The reports are not user friendly and some important clarifying information is needed. For example, I'm looking at the Workplaces report and just in the second page information is so dense (and so full of parameters) its hard to get. analyzing the whole reports I couldn't get a grasp of the expectations of Timberland in terms of each of its pillars, its goals, how is performing based on its goals, etc. As stakeholders, we are more interested in seeing what are you doing and how are you doing it, as opposed to extreme quantitative metrics.
Mike Stallworth | Posted: 7 April 2009
I think the format of the reports reflects trends in CSR that you and other companies are leading. It makes sense to use an electronic format to mitigate the impact on the environment and shorter, quarterly reports that are easier for readers to digest.
Have you considered incorporating technology and other media in your CSR communiation? I think there are other ways to engage customers, i.e. social networks, which serve a dual purpose of incorporating them and communicating to them. Also, there are benefits of immediate feedback from consumers.
Andrea Schwartz | Posted: 7 April 2009
Jenn's comment about "open source" innovation has sparked my interest in how Timberland balances transparency in reporting CSR advances with the opportunity for competitive advantage since CSR is becoming more and more important to the consumer. Which types of information (e.g. factory locations, product materials) are easier to share publicly than others?
Andrea Schwartz | Posted: 7 April 2009
Overall, I am impressed by the level of detail in tracking CSR initiatives across your supply chain. In your energy report, you mention that tracking the annual carbon dioxide emissions in your footwear supply chain is quite complicated since some factories produce both Timberland and non-Timberland products. Do you currently or have you considered partnering your emission reduction initiatives with other multi-national companies who outsource production to the same factories in developing countries?
Also, you mention that your ability to track emissions for Timberland production at these factories has improved due to the issuance of more speicifc questionnaires. Have you found supplier questionnaires to be a reliable source of data when tracking emissions? What other tracking means are available or used?
Micah Moreau | Posted: 7 April 2009
I echo the sentiments shared by most people about the format of the reports - there is a ton of information but the takeaways are harder to discern.
I think it's useful that you have different metrics for Service, especially one for total community service hours, and one for hours used on a % basis (HUR) but I see little explanation for large deviations from target. For example, Earth Day participation for the Wholesale teams in Germany, Austria and Switzerland went from 506 hours in 2007 to 216 hours in 2008. Based on the analysis in the reports, this is not likely attributable to the global decrease in headcount but there seems to be no explanation for the decrease, nor ways to rectify the drop in participation. Going forward, in all of the reports I think it would be helpful to try and expound upon the ways Timberland is trying to increase the participation and engagement of its employees.
I'm also interested to know how receptive the "high priority" factories have been to remediation efforts and if there are trends - geographical, etc.
Adam Carson | Posted: 7 April 2009
Unfortunately, when I look at all the reports and data, all I see is numbers, numbers, numbers...and then I'm lost. I would like to see a section that clearly shows progress towards the stated Pillars. For example, charities use a thermometer to show progress towards a fundraising goal. I think something visually similar needs to be applied here for each Pillar. For instance, with regard to Pillar #1 - becoming carbon neutral...how far along is Timberland towards this goal? 10%, 25%, 50%...can it be boiled down to a single number? Overall, I feel that there is too much information being presented for the average visitor to this website. The data may very well be valuable internally, but needs to be boiled down and summarized for external consumption.
Ryan McGovern | Posted: 7 April 2009
Agree with Karenne's point above -- It seems to me that Patagonia's core customer segments place a more universal high value on CSR initiatives than do Timberland's. Whereas Patagonia's core customers will be "pulling" the company in the CSR direction (to borrow Karenne's phrasing), Timberland's challenge seems to be the opposite -- the customers either have to be pulled by the company or the company must continue in its comparatively muted effort.
