Press Release - Timberland (Old)

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At Timberland, we are working to integrate corporate social responsibility into everything we do. This means empowering employees to make informed business decisions, inspiring our employees and community members to invest sweat equity in their community, and communicating this message to our consumers in a way that is heroic, but also accessible. These lofty goals can not be achieved with the insight and collaboration of our stakeholder community - and we commit to honoring your engagement by incorporating your wisdom into the work we do everyday.

As our stakeholder community gets even more sophisticated in their understanding of corporate sustainability issues, they are demanding greater information about the claims we make publicly. This is where transparency, accountability and reporting must play an integral role in our CSR efforts.

By visiting this page, youre already engaging with Timberland. Our goals are to gain feedback about our initiatives and learn from your ideas, suggestions, and experiences. So talk with us on the Just Means Good Work feed conversations and well be sure to weigh in with our thoughts!

You can also learn more about Timberland by going to www.earthkeeper.com - our new stakeholder engagement portal where you can find our reporting, events, blog and more! Here, we aim to engage with you to:

Widen the diversity of stakeholders we interact with - we invite you to join the Earthkeeper network to learn about new Timberland initiatives. Scale conversations on key issues responsible businesses face- see www.earthkeeper.com/voicesofchallenge for discussions on climate change, product stewardship, global human rights and community engagement. Learn from your feedback to improve our approach - Leave us comments about our progress. Take steps in your own life to reduce your impacts. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Timberland Company Announces Leading-Edge Changes to CSR Reporting

Jun 17, 2008 10:10 AM CDT

(Justmeans.com / CSR News) - STRATHAM, NH,. - June 17, 2008 - The Timberland Company today announced several innovative changes in how it publicly reports on its corporate social responsibility (CSR) work. The company, which has traditionally reported its CSR performance in an annual report format, is moving to quarterly updates of key CSR metrics – the first of which is now available on the Timberland page at JustMean (http://timberland.justmeans.com). Full CSR reports will still be available every two years with the 2007-2008 corporate CSR report scheduled for release in Spring 2009.

JustMeans (www.justmeans.com) is a social media platform that rallies both companies and individuals around social responsibility. Timberland intends to leverage JustMeans and Web 2.0 to scale the conversations with its stakeholders around CSR issues material to their organization.

"As our stakeholder community grows increasingly sophisticated in their understanding of sustainability issues, they demand greater information about our CSR initiatives," explains Alex Hausman, Timberland's CSR Reporting Manager."This is where transparency and accountability – through accessible, relevant and timely information about our work in CSR – is critical."

Developing a full CSR report is a time-intensive process, generally taking about nine months – and allowing little time for investments in process improvements, development of data infrastructure, testing new mediums and other innovations necessary in effective CSR reporting. As a consequence, Timberland has decided to move to a two-year cycle for publishing full CSR reports.

The obvious drawback to a two-year reporting cycle is decreased communication between a company and its stakeholders – vital to the success of a CSR program.To counterbalance the two-year reporting structure, Timberland will release an online "dashboard" of performance metrics quarterly, communicating progress against key CSR initiatives. Both the dashboard and quarterly reporting process was reviewed by a Ceres-convened stakeholder group who provided guidance on the initiative.

"We believe in the adage, 'what gets measured gets managed,'" said Hausman. "Quarterly reporting will strengthen our communication with stakeholders, and also drive progress internally against our CSR initiatives."

Timberland's quarterly CSR dashboard contains performance metrics for four areas: energy, product, workplaces and service. These focus areas are the product of a year-long process to refine Timberland's long-term CSR strategy. The result is four goals, each supported by a scorecard of metrics with targets set out to 2015. The dashboard that is made publicly available is a collection of key performance indicators from those scorecards.

The four "pillars" of Timberland's strategy are:

Become carbon neutral by 2010 [energy]
Design cradle-to-cradle product
Fair, safe and non-discriminatory workplaces
2008-2009: service campaign: Community Greening

About Timberland
Timberland (NYSE: TBL) is a global leader in the design, engineering and marketing of premium-quality footwear, apparel and accessories for consumers who value the outdoors and their time in it. Timberland markets products under the Timberland(R), Timberland PRO(R), SmartWool(R), Timberland Boot Company(TM), Miōn(R), GoLite(R), Howies(R) and IPATH(R) brands, all of which offer quality workmanship and detailing and are built to withstand the elements of nature. The company's products can be found in leading department and specialty stores as well as Timberland(R) retail stores throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, South Africa and the Middle East. Timberland’s dedication to making quality products is matched by the company’s commitment to "doing well and doing good" -- forging powerful partnerships among employees, consumers and service partners to transform the communities in which they live and work. To learn more about Timberland, please visit www.timberland.com.

For more information please contact:

Kate King, Assoc. Manager, Corp. Communications
Timberland
603.773.1379
www.timberland.com

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