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Modeling Corporate Climate Action

By admin / February 24th, 2010 / Categories: Corporate Social Responsibility, green consumerism

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It’s easy to get the impression that there is no hope for climate action. Perhaps you’ve heard that the recent DC snowstorms buried any chance to pass a comprehensive energy and climate bill. Or that hacked emails have set the climate movement back a decade. We have a completely ineffectual Senate, a gun-shy EPA, and a dysfunctional global climate community. Our political leadership seems to be paralyzed by fear to take on the climate crisis.

That’s not the impression you’d get reading the business news, though. There, you would have seen a year of climate momentum. In October, several major companies left the US Chamber of Commerce over its position on corporate climate action. Bill Gates has called for making climate change our #1 priority. Every week, another company seems to be launching a new effort to reduce its climate impact. The steady ticker of corporate action toward energy efficiency, renewable energy investment, carbon neutrality, and extraordinary technological innovation tells a remarkably different story than our stuck-in-the-mud politics and lightweight public discourse on climate.

We’ve launched a new project, Climate Counts Industry Innovators (or i2) that will help this momentum build. We heard from so many companies–even after our first year of company scoring in 2007–that simply got it. They understood that an external review of their climate actions made simple for consumers could have real long-term brand benefit in an increasingly competitive world. We found a forward-thinking group of companies that voluntarily wanted to go through our scoring process; they wanted to face Climate Counts’ scrutiny of their carbon management efforts to bolster an already strong spirit of environmental innovation with an outside point of view. Six of those companies now comprise our charter group of i2 companies: Amtrak , Ben & Jerry’s , Clif Bar , REI , Shaklee , and Timberland . They represent different sectors, different geographies, different sizes, and different corporate structures. But what they share is a commitment to making it clear to consumers that climate action is business leadership. They’re helping build markets for renewables, they’re testing new technologies, they’re helping employees and consumer make the link between their lives and climate change, and they’re doing the common-sense work of running their companies more efficiently.

This is yet more proof that businesses that are committed to their own long-term viability understand the realities of climate change, aren’t being misled by the climate deniers, and respect the steady evolution of consumers on issues as complex as climate change. They’re positioning themselves to out-compete the companies still dithering on climate.

Companies that are setting a high bar on corporate climate responsibility are increasingly faced with a critical issue: how to gain the consumer’s attention for that leadership. Since launching our Climate Counts Company Scorecard three years ago, we’ve always maintained that companies wanting to see real ROI from credible sustainability programs and investments need to make it abundantly clear to consumers what they’ve done and why.

When it comes to innovation of all kinds (technological, environmental, or otherwise), consumers want to be wowed. They are drawn to CEOs who have put the time and resources into developing meaningful solutions to problems. Consumers may not always know what to ask of companies about their climate and sustainability programs, but they want to be impressed by the innovation they represent. More importantly, though, they have to believe it. But it’s not just about who’s the loudest or more effusive or uses the best shade of green in a logo or ad campaign. In a world where recycling and light bulbs still define the consumer environmental conversation, companies have a unique opportunity, even responsibility, to lead consumers on the issues that really matter.

What’s the best news about the innovative actions of these companies? While they’re confidently preparing to put distance between themselves and climate laggards, they’re also helping us all imagine a world that’s both better for good business and better for the people and resources upon which they depend.

Wood Turner is the executive director of Climate Counts. To learn more about the Climate Counts Industry Innovators program, visit http://i2.climatecounts.org or e-mail i2@climatecounts.org

Bearing Witness to Haiti

By admin / February 2nd, 2010 / Categories: Corporate Social Responsibility, earthkeeping

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The following is an email sent by Timberland President and CEO Jeff Swartz to Timberland employees worldwide, chronicling his recent trip to Haiti. We’re sharing it here on Earthkeepers because we believe it stands up to its name — "bearing witness" — as a powerful account of destruction and survival in Haiti … and provides perspective for the important work that lies ahead as the nation rebuilds.

Team Timberland,

So, what’s so hard about this note, which I have intended to write for a week? Last week, I visited Haiti, in the company of Bill Shore , the founder and executive director of Share Our Strength, and a Timberland Board member, and chair of the Board’s Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, and in the company of Wyclef Jean , a 12 time Grammy award winner, a Haitian musician and activist, Timberland’s partner in an effort to plant trees and reforest Haiti, as part of our global Earthkeeper efforts. The visit was in response to the earthquake that struck Haiti 3 weeks ago; our visit was an attempt to focus Timberland’s Earthkeeper resources temporarily on disaster relief. The trip was emotional and powerful; I left Saturday night and was back in the office Tuesday.

So, what’s so hard about a brief note that describes the heroism of the many doctors we saw, the heartbreak of the destruction we saw, the inspiration I felt with Bill and Wyclef, and the indignation I felt at the world’s well intended but inept efforts to cope with this disaster?

Maybe it is the scale of the disaster, in the context of a country already ravaged by history. Maybe it is the raw, emotional experience of being amidst death and destruction, and in the presence of the dying. Maybe it is the feeling of futility, the ultimate experience of the City Year “Starfish” story , that waited for me at each stop we made in Haiti—yes, we made a difference here, but wow, we did not even scratch the surface of the pain and agony here…

For all these reasons and more, I have not done my job by you; I have not been able to bear witness to you from Haiti. So, below, I have tried to right that wrong. Call this note, “bearing witness”–but “bear with me” also works–it is a very long note. Long for the reasons I cite above, and long because it is hard even now for me to say simply why a bootmaker flew to Hell and how the experience of that Hell affirmed my belief in the mission of commerce and justice. So, here goes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Imagining a New Way Forward

By admin / February 1st, 2010 / Categories: Corporate Social Responsibility, earthkeeping

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Last week , Billy Shore provided a poignant account of his trip to Haiti with Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz and Earthkeeper Wyclef Jean , among others. Below, Jeff Swartz shares his own thoughts on the devastation in Haiti, how it redefined Timberland’s partnership with our partner Yéle Haiti … and how innovation is built from crisis.

Please note this is excerpted from a piece which appears on Fast Company today. Please click here to read the entire entry, and our thanks to the Fast Company team for sharing.

After the earthquake

We reached out, and Wyclef moved from celebrity entertainer to Haitian leader—from rapping out lyrics, to rapping out directions. He told us from the ground, aid is pouring in, and stalling at the airport. Not a question of good instincts, good intentions, pure hearts—but the issue is not about intention, it’s about execution. Get the food, get the water, get the medical supplies to the people—period. And Wyclef was hard but clear: we are a for-profit company, with superb logistic competences, and with a factory for over 20 years in Santiago, in the Dominican Republic— just 100 miles from Port au Prince. He told us to urgently mobilize the trucks, open the warehouse, and get material flowing. Yéle will get the food packed—Timberland has to get it delivered. And then Yéle will do its magic—mobilizing young Haitians, in neighborhoods like Bel Air and Cité Soleil, to distribute food to the hungry, hope to the powerful souls living in the open after the quake. Do what you do well—do what a great bootmaker does—work your logistics network, and partner with the right entrepreneurial partner, and together—we can deliver good.

And so we did—we mobilized our logistics team in the DR, and went to work. And while we are not Federal Express or UPS—we grunted and we got shipments moving over land.

And then Wyclef said—get on the plane and come here, and see the model for building a new Haiti. A model that is one part the private sector, one part the authentic and effective NGO, and nine parts the spirit of free Haiti. See Timberland plus Yéle plus the young of Haiti work in a specific, focused way to be part of creating a new Haiti.

So I went. They say journeys are more about who you travel with, and less about the itinerary. On this voyage, I had the company and counsel of heroes —like Bill Shore (the founder and CEO of Share Our Strength, Timberland board member and teacher of mine), and a team from Partners in Health who needed a ride to this island in desperate need of medical miracles. We made our way to Port au Prince. And in the searing humidity, we served 8,000 hot meals that Yéle had found a way to cook. We served from the back of a truck, in Cité Soleil. We sweated, and cried, and we saw the outlines of a way forward. One part private sector competence and passion, one part on-the-ground entrepreneurial NGO brilliance, and 9 parts Haitian strength and dignity and grace and energy. And when we wheeled out of Cité Soleil, while my heart will never be the same, neither will my head.

Spending two days in post-earthquake Haiti does not make me akin to its survivors — but it was time enough for me to develop a new understanding of crisis and devastation and reaffirmed for me, a third-generation entrepreneur, that out of crisis flows innovation. Before the earthquake, I was the CEO of a for-profit company with strength to share and a passion for commerce and justice. Planting trees in Haiti felt like, looked like, the right thing to do. It still is. Only now, post-quake, I’m a CEO with strength and passion who has witnessed both frustration and amazingly, hope in both a ravaged land and its survivors. Tomorrow we’ll plant trees … today we’re growing a logistical network from Santiago to Cité Soleil. Tomorrow we’ll revisit our marketing plans — today we’re leveraging our strategy skills to figure out how to get more food into the hands of the hungry. Trees, yes, community building, yes — a solid vision for the future is as critical to Haiti’s survival as anything right now. But before the re-growth, a nation needs to heal, and before it can heal, it needs help.

Jeff Swartz
President & CEO, Timberland

Sharing Our Strength

By admin / January 20th, 2010 / Categories: Corporate Social Responsibility

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More than a week after Haiti’s earthquake , the tragedy still remains at the forefront of our hearts and minds. And while it’s good news that relief and recovery efforts are underway, it’s clearly not enough. Countless reports lament the fact that critical supplies aren’t being transported or distributed quickly enough, nor reaching those who need them most. Goods and personnel coming into the island nation remain largely bottlenecked, as Port Au Prince ’s nonfunctioning seaport and many impassible roads hinder relief efforts.

It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of so many challenges … but it’s also an opportunity to think creatively about how you might be able to help.

Timberland knows very little about disaster relief. But we do know about distribution – getting goods from Point A to Point B is a critical component of our business, and so we have to know how to manage it fairly well.

Another thing we know about is making boots – and one of the primary places we do it is in the Dominican Republic , where we’ve owned and operated a factory since 1982. Our Dominican Timberland community is 1,600 people strong, operating out of 10 buildings in the Free Zone Pisano in Santiago.

So – if we leverage our experience in managing transportation and distribution, make use of our workforce and facilities in the DR as a means of bringing supplies to the island, and then work with our existing partner on the ground, Yele Haiti – we just might be able to help get supplies into the hands of the survivors who need them most.

We tested the model a few days ago, facilitating the delivery of 70,000 pounds of food and medical supplies from Toronto to Santiago where it was trucked across the border and into Haiti. It worked – and now we’re committed to making the model more scalable so that we can continue to use the infrastructure and people power we already have in place to lend our strength in the best way we can. We have the model, we have the desire … now we simply need to figure out how.

In the weeks and months to come, we look forward to revisiting the original mission of our partnership with Yele Haiti – reforestation – and hope to move ahead with our plans to build a tree nursery and provide both trees and fruit for a region more in need than ever. For now, we are proud to have found a way to support the critical work they’re doing to bring care and relief to people in Haiti.

You can make a donation to the Yele Haiti earthquake fund by clicking here or texting the word “yele” to 501501 ($5 per text will be donated).

Don’t Tell Us It Can’t Be Done

By admin / November 17th, 2009 / Categories: Uncategorized

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In December, 192 nations from around the world will come together in Copenhagen to attempt to ratify a new global climate change treaty, designed to replace the soon-to-expire Kyoto protocol .

COP15 represents a significant opportunity to take action on climate change … an opportunity we’re strongly supporting through Don’t Tell Us It Can’t Be Done , a global movement encouraging citizens of the world to positively affect the process by challenging government leaders to set standards for emissions.

Make your voice heard by signing our online petition which asks world leaders to come to an agreement on fair and binding climate legislation in Copenhagen. And, stay tuned for daily updates and exclusive interviews here on the Earthkeepers blog as our on-the-ground correspondent reports from the climate conference in Copenhagen.

Painting, Progress and Puppies

By admin / November 16th, 2009 / Categories: Corporate Social Responsibility, earthkeeping

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This is the final update from Timberland Earthkeeper Lynn Woodrum, who spent last week lending her time and energy to rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. Our thanks to Lynn, and fellow Earthkeeper MacKenzie Mosca, for sharing their experience with us .

Friday, November 13

The day started well with our team getting a lot of our house project completed. With the inside mostly finished, it was time to give the outside a new coat of sea green paint. The house really came a long way from Monday, with only one room we didn’t finish – the handicap-accessible bathroom which professionals need to do.

A fresh coat of paint finishes the house project

All week a little puppy had visited us at the house site, she was so cute. The owner came over on Friday and offered to give the puppy to an electrician (Steve) who worked with all of us and the Rebuilding Together group. Needless to say it was a tearful moment… he named his new puppy Holly, as the house is located on Hollygrove St.

Steve and new puppy, Holly

About 12:30 we wrapped up the day and said our goodbyes to the Rebuilding Together employees and to Ms. Alice (the new home owner) and her family. Another tearful moment. Then we went back to the garden project and what a sight it was! The last time I was there was on Monday, and it looked so different. A walkway had been added, more fruit trees, a trench dug, and the privacy fence started. It was just beautiful!

I feel like I walked away with many new lifelong friends and helped to rebuild a community. I think that In Good Company gave back hope to many families by just being there; showing people that there are others out there willing to get dirty, and help others. My week in New Orleans showed me how much I have, and how important family is to me. If there is ever a chance to help again, I hope that more people will get involved and experience this opportunity!

- Lynn Woodrum