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A Special Kind of Summer Camp



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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.”

Share Your Strength for Childhood Hunger



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Earthkeeping means caring for our planet … but it also means caring for the people who share it with us.  And leading the pack when it comes to caring for America’s children and their struggle with hunger is Bill Shore, Timberland board member and the founder and executive director of Share our Strength.

Billy was interviewed yesterday on NPR’s program Talk of the Nation, as part of the program’s coverage of the issue of childhood hunger – a critical issue impacting millions of children in the United States, and one President Obama has pledged to end by 2015.  You can listen to the entire program here:


How to help?

  • Support your local food bank in their efforts to get nutritious food to the families in your community that need it.  (Timberland’s front-lawn “Victory Garden” produce is sold to our employees and proceeds go to the NH Food Bank … employees love the fresh veggies and the food bank appreciates the support!)
  • Email your Senators and Representative in support of the Child Nutrition Bill, critical legislation that will further the efforts to end childhood hunger in America.

Preserving Past and Future



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Last month, 25 Earthkeepers from Timberland spent the day preserving landscape and history at the Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, MA.

The park pays tribute to the opening battle of the American Revolution, and park grounds are preserved in 18th century tradition.  Some of the park’s fields are still actively farmed through the park’s leasing program, but many areas have become overgrown with brush and invasive plants.  In support of the park’s efforts to restore much of its agrarian landscape and evoke colonial times, when most of the land was used for grazing livestock, Timberland volunteers installed fencing and built an animal shelter for cattle and pigs – favorite “attractions” for park visitors.

Our thanks to the folks at the Minute Man Historical Park for their efforts to preserving events from the past, and land for the future.  To learn more about the park, please visit their website.

Ceres Sustainability Reporting Awards



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At the annual Ceres conference held earlier this week, Timberland was very proud to accept the award for the Best Sustainability Report.  We’re honored to receive this important recognition, particularly considering the first-class caliber of contenders we were up against, including:

Ford Motor Company
(First Runner Up, Best Sustainability Report)

Ford’s 2008-09 Blueprint for Sustainability Report addresses the fundamental challenge of sustainability and includes candid discussion about Ford’s past performance, mistakes made and how they’re working to further integrate sustainability into their business model.

Seventh Generation

(Best  Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Report)

Seventh Gen’s 2008 Corporate Consciousness Report includes focus on two key considerations for sustainable business: supply chain and competition.  The report features an in-depth discussion about how the company engages with its manufacturing partners to improve sustainability performance, as well as how it uses industry collaboration to create positive change.

The fact that the Ceres-ACCA Reporting Awards program is ten years old and counting is testament itself that there is a real need for and interest in business communicating openly and honestly about its efforts to create positive environmental and social impact.  We’ve drawn insight and inspiration from past award recipients, and we hope we can live up to their leadership and do the same for other organizations.

For more information about the Ceres-ACCA Reporting Awards, click here.

A Time for Regrowing



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A full month has passed since the major earthquake that rocked Haiti and devastated its people.  In its wake, much of the world has shifted its focus to the need for aid and relief for Haiti’s survivors.  The need for basic necessities – food, water, secure shelter – remains critical.

Equally critical is a vision for Haiti’s future … and as part of that vision, a sharp focus on the country’s environmental state.  Haiti suffers one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, thanks in large part to the need for energy (Haitians cut and burn trees in “raw” form or turn the wood into charcoal).  Wood accounts for more than 70 percent of all fuel consumed in the island nation … but with fewer than 100,000 acres of forest remaining, Haiti’s deforestation problem is poised to become yet another crisis for the country.

Satellite image depicting the border between Haiti (left)
and the Dominican Republic (right), 2002.

Deforestation is a serious problem anywhere – but particularly alarming when you consider the effects in a region that has in recent years suffered several natural disasters.  Without trees creating any sort of a natural barrier or holding soil in place, flooding, mudslides and landslides become severe threats, impacting everything from infrastructure to agriculture.

While we’re currently supporting relief efforts underway in Haiti , we haven’t lost sight or passion for the reforestation project we’re undertaking with our partner Yele Haiti.  In fact, the current state of affairs reaffirms our commitment to helping rebuild the country, one tree at a time.

Stay tuned for more details of our reforestation projects, in Haiti as well as other regions of the world

Letter from Haiti



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This past weekend, Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz traveled to Haiti via the Dominican Republic along with Haiti’s own Earthkeeper Wyclef Jean and Bill Shore , Timberland board member and founder and executive director of Share Our Strength.  Billy shared the following reflections with his Share Our Strength community upon his return, and was kind enough to also share it with us:

“The most dangerous place in the world right now is the sky over Haiti. It is filled with so many helicopters in a very small space. One has already crashed” warned the airport official briefing our pilot.

The Blackhawk we were supposed to fly to Port au Prince from the Dominican Republic had been cancelled at the last minute but I didn’t mind because the only word I’ve ever associated with the word Blackhawk is the word “down.”  Instead we flew a smaller chopper, low enough to get a taste of the destruction and suffering we were soon to meet face to face.

We’d flown to the Dominican Republic thanks to the generosity of Timberland which lent its plane to shuttle Partners in Health doctors and supplies. We made good use of our layover though.  Haiti’s favorite son, Wyclef Jean, a 12 time Grammy winner who led our delegation had obtained a meeting at the presidential palace in Santo Domingo with President Leonel Fernandez . The earthquake has led to an unprecedented level of cooperation between the two countries. We pressed for even more and he assured us that “stepping back from long term investment in Haiti is unacceptable.”

Afterward, from the air we could see an endless stream of supply trucks slowly making their way to Haiti on the narrow land route that hugs the coast.  Landing in Port au Prince we were met by security and military officials. One told me: “I’ve been to Rwanda, Kosovo, Indonesia, you name it. But this is different. Nothing prepares you for something like this.”

You’ve seen the pictures, more unforgettable than words. Mountains of collapsed rubble stretch mile after mile. We saw only two bulldozers during our entire visit.  The clean up alone will be years, not months.
With Wyclef we went to Cite de Soleil, one of the poorest areas of Port au Prince. We were there to distribute food from a truck stuffed top to bottom with Styrofoam containers of cooked meals. The combination of Wyclef and the food led to an almost instant crush of thousands of Haitian children and their parents for as far as the eye could see.

In our work I’ve often seen the gratitude that comes from families receiving meals.  What I’d never seen before was the panic on the faces of so many people who knew better than I did that the food would run out before we’d served even a fraction of those who’d had nothing but an energy biscuit or power bar in the ten days since the quake struck.

The crowd became larger and surged forward.  A few fights broke out, but there was no real violence, just hunger in the starkest and truest sense. At one point the crowd broke through a formidable team of private security and we were pinned against the truck. Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz and I locked eyes in realization of the fragility of a moment that could go either way. Wyclef grabbed a bullhorn and tried to calm the crowd but even his celebrity was no match for their desperation.  The only option was for the truck, almost empty, to speed away, to another neighborhood, where after restocking we began again.

Before I got to Haiti, Share Our Strength had distributed $145,000 to the most effective organizations on the ground here. More has come in since. I like to think we excel at long term solutions, entrepreneurship, and bold thinking.  The time will soon come when such competencies are invaluable. But none of that was worth a pile of concrete rubble in Port au Prince this week. What was required instead was Mother Teresa’s prescription of hands willing to serve and hearts willing to love, which your generosity has enabled us to support.

Now the real test of commitment begins.  I could have lived with myself if we’d chosen not to make this trip, but having made it I won’t be able to live with not going back to continue what we’ve begun.  The airport official who conducted our helicopter briefing was wrong. The greatest danger is not the sky above Port Au Prince, or Cite de Soleil where there was no violence, only desperation.  The real danger is whether our hearts and heads have the capacity to continue to bear witness after the headlines fade and the benefit concerts end, and our lives once again refocus on the many needs even closer to home.

- Billy Shore

Young Rally Through The 11th Hour



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Any "adult" who laments today’s youth are apathetic, uninvolved and politically disinterested hasn’t been reading his or her newspaper. Every paper, whether The New York Times or China’s Reference News, is covering the massive outpouring of youth energy and activism convening in Copenhagen.

The city is packed–absolutely packed–with young people from around the world, many crashing on friend’s couches, in local hostels or, worse, sleeping outside in frigid temperatures in hopes of influencing these last few hours of United Nations Climate Negotiations. Although some have clashed in protests with Danish police , the majority are rallying peacefully and remaining hopeful through the 11th hour.

Check out our recent video on the diversity of YOUTH ACTIVISM in Copenhagen . . .

Dispatch #4: Week 2 Heats Up



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Week 2: The Brass Tracks



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by Gabriel London

It’s week 2 of the Copenhagen Climate Conference and the Bella Center has never been more crowded. Copenhagen Dispatch with Olivia Zaleski #4 marks a new chapter in our coverage because we get into the brass tacks of negotiation: developed vs. developing nations. The conclusion of this conversation in Copenhagen will either yield us a deal or come up short. And your voices – dear viewers – can make all the difference.

As we began the week, with the protest fresh in our minds , we thought we would find a story inside the Bella Center that pitted the developing world against the rich nations like the US and UK. What we uncovered along the way , however, was not so much an insurmountable divide between the rich and poor nations, but instead a unifying bridge, embodied by Ed Milliband , head negotiator for the UK, and Ambassador Dessima Williams , UN representative from Grenada and chairwoman of the much discussed bloc of island nations, AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States ).

We’re hitting the home stretch and word is that Hillary Clinton herself will be here to lend the US its strongest negotiating hand . We gonna chronicle it up to the end (well, almost, because it seems we’re headed home Friday as Obama arrives!).

Copenhagen is buzzing. Stay tuned for all that’s left to come . . .

STAY EDUCATED!

FOR MORE ON: – The Struggle Faced by Small Island Nations visit this recent collection of videos and reporting featured on: The Huffington Post .
And for Ed Miliband and the UK’s Ambition for a Global Deal in Copenhagen visit: actoncopenhagen.decc.gov.uk .

DISPATCH VIDEOS BEHIND THE SCENES



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