Photographing environmental issues for a sustainable future.
Community Gardening in China
Last fall, discouraged by the plot of abandoned wasteland in front of her apartment in China’s Guangdong Province, Xiao Qing decided to do something about it. Qing, an employee at Dongguan Zerong Bag Co. Ltd. (a factory Timberland contracts with), cleaned up the plot of land and planted white radish. While her initial planting didn’t yield great green results, the experience was rewarding and inspirational enough that Qing reclaimed another abandoned lot, and then another. Over time her “garden” grew to include spinach, lettuce and celery … and her efforts attracted other community members interested in sharing in her land transformation.
What started as a simple, one-plot patch of white radish is now a lush, green community garden enjoyed and maintained by numerous community “farmers” who have fostered a friendship in and around a flourishing vegetable garden. These farmers watch over each other’s crops, share seeds, and help each other with sowing, weeding, watering and harvesting.
Growing community and veggies at the same time … that’s good Earthkeeping.
Xiao Qing’s community garden
Take Back the Tap!
In honor of the first anniversary of Timberland’s ban on bottled water (give or take a month), we give you the Story of Bottled Water by Annie Leonard. Annie is the same woman whose Story of Stuff inspired us to take a critical review of our spending and consumption habits, and she’s done it again with this thought-provoking video on the bottled water industry. Her explanation of “manufactured demand” (a phenomenon not limited to the bottled water industry, by the way) is reason enough to take 8 viewing minutes out of your day.
A Special Kind of Summer Camp
According to data from the China Women’s Federation, there are some 50 million children regularly left at home when their parents have to work as migrant workers in other parts of the country. These children lack supervision, attention and care from their parents for extended periods of time.
In July and August, Hong Kong NGO Wave5 and Pou Yuen footwear company organize a summer camp for nearly 700 of these “left behind” children, and Timberland employees in China volunteer for the project. Below, photos and first-hand accounts from Timberland volunteers who are spending their summer making a critical difference for these children … and creating impact for themselves in the process.
“I admired the volunteers from Hong Kong tremendously. They were full of love, used their own vacation time, paid their own fee to come and take care of these ‘left behind’ children. Although many of them could not speak Mandarin very fluently, they used their hearts to convey knowledge, happiness and love to the children, the future of our mother land.”
“(At dinner one night) one of the girls carried her plates to the dining table, crying. The food almost fell. I hurried to help and by the time I reached the table, five or six of other little girls were crying as well. I asked them why they cried. From their broken sentences, I realized this was the last meal and their volunteer teachers had to leave. These girls didn’t want to say goodbye to their teachers. They made cards with red hearts for us, saying they would remember us and would love us forever. I saw them working on those hearts and folding paper the day before during my class … it was only now I realized they were making gifts for us.”
“In the past week, I didn’t think I taught them anything, but they taught me to be pure, honest, simple … to trust and love. In the name of volunteering, I gained tremendous amount of love and blessings.”
Earthkeeping in Poland
On June 8, 54 Earthkeepers in Poland from Timberland and Marketing Investment Group headed out to the forest, the garden and the mountainside to wish Mother Nature a happy belated Earth Day. By breaking up into 6 groups and serving at a number of different service sites, the Earthkeepers in Poland were able to fix up trails, restore infrastructure and fences, clear out illegal dumping sites, protect a bridge and help with flood cleanup. All of this dedicated work took place at the nursery-garden Falsztyn, Homole Gully/Pieniny Mountains, White Water Preserve, Black Water Preserve and the Jaworki Forest.
At the Homole Gully/Pieniny Mountains service site, 5,400 liters of rubbish, pipe, bathtub pieces, and linoleum were collected, sorted and prepared for recycling. And at the White Water Preserve, 480 liters of rubbish was removed from the green landscape.
In total, the Timberland Poland team members completed 500 hours of service. We applaud the Earthkeepers in Poland for their hard work in celebration of our shared planet.
Crossing the Pacific in a Plastic Bottle Boat
Three cheers for the crew of the Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran made from over 12,000 recycled plastic bottles:
Photo courtesy of AFP.com
The Plastiki just completed a 4-month journey across the Pacific Ocean, traveling from San Francisco, CA to Sydney, Australia … all in the name of plastic pollution awareness.
Along the way, Plastiki crew members endured rough weather and giant waves, and sailed by the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” formed by millions of pounds of plastic debris that have clustered together in the water.
Last spring, we shared the story of a similar vessel – JUNKraft – that sailed from California to Hawaii to raise awareness for the same environmental issue. In the 2 years since JUNKraft made its journey, the “garbage patch” has continued to grow … indicating that there’s still more work to be done in controlling and reducing the plastic pollution problem.
Sailing the seas to create awareness is good … even better would be to sail the seas to create positive impact. Anyone have a design idea for a plastic bottle boat equipped with a vacuum attachment? If you’re going to make the journey, might as well pick up some trash along the way.
