Archive for 2010
Another Day at Timberland
Warm and sunny memories to help get us through a rainy, blustery mid-November day in New Hampshire …
A hot July sun blazed down on the gang of Timberland employees making the sweltering 1.2 mile trek to a local middle school that graciously offered to host the company’s Q2 Rally. The scene, to onlookers, most likely resembled that of herd migrations seen on the Discovery Channel.
Muggy air sat heavy atop the wafting chatter as they happily racked up step counts on their pedometers. Undoubtedly for some, the walk helped them to pull ahead in the most current step challenge in which they’ll be awarded health miles and the ever so coveted bragging rights. As always in the Timberland world, the challenges are friendly, but there is no dismissing the fact that Timberlanders boast a competitive streak.
Conversation topics tangled around each other making them impossible to decipher but no doubt somewhere amongst the crowd there were discussions of upcoming service events, sharing of most recent kayaking or bike riding adventures, and exchanges of green living ideas. All of them being a central part of daily Timberland life.
Whether the choice to walk was made with a workout in mind, or as an opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint, the crowd collectively lived up to the nature of the Timberland brand and strapped on their boots … Errrr, sandals and flip flops, and communed with the outdoor world.
Ride On, Bryan (but get some new boots first)
We get a lot of feedback from our customers … some good, plenty bad, every once in a while, ugly. In the spirit of sharing All Things Timberland here on our new Bootmakers Blog, we’ll be sharing these customer stories from time to time. (Yes, even the bad and ugly ones as long as they’re obscenity-free.) Enjoy – and feel free to submit your own Timberland product stories and comments. We just might use them!
This one came from Bryan “lucky foot” in Virginia:
I was involved in a motorcycle accident while wearing my Timberland hiking boots. I had an older gentleman pull out in front of me. The bike was totaled during the accident. The main injury that I had was to my right foot. The running board on the bike was bent upwards, folded in half and then ripped off the motorcycle.
After being rushed to the hospital, my foot was found to have been smashed and a hole was blown in the back of the heel the size of a quarter from the pressure exerted from the foot being crushed. The doctors and lawyer attribute my not having any broken bones in the foot to the boots I was wearing. When the lawyer took a look at the bike, he stated that I am lucky to just have a foot and that he had seen (similar accidents) where individuals’ feet were just severed off. I give the boot all of the credit and a little luck and even if the boots did not survive the accident, my foot did.
Thanks for producing such a quality product. Ride on.
Bryan
Serving Those Who Serve Us
In honor of the men and women that serve our country, we’re proud to announce the launch of Timberland’s military discount program. Effective today, military personnel will receive 20% off their entire purchase in Timberland stores (with a valid military ID). The military discount can be combined with other coupon and discount offers.
Happy Veterans Day, and happy shopping.
Help Us Plant an Additional 1 Million Trees in Haiti
Are you excited about planting trees? We certainly are. So much so that in addition to the real trees we’re planting around the world, we’ve launched a new Timberland Earthkeepers Virtual Forest application on Facebook. By creating their own individual virtual forests and inviting friends to plant trees in them, members of the Facebook community are helping to get real trees planted in Haiti. So far, as a result of the Facebook community’s adoption of the application, which was launched in October, 1,762 real trees will be planted in Haiti
If you haven’t checked it out already, go ahead and do so. By either planting trees in already existing virtual forests or by creating your own forest, you can help Timberland plant an additional 1 million real trees in Haiti. It’s that simple. The more virtual trees and virtual forests, the more real trees we’ll plant in Haiti (up to 1 million) – above and beyond the ones we’re already planting there. Create a forest and invite your friends to do the same and then plant trees in each other’s forests too. Nature will thank you. Haiti will thank you and Timberland will thank you by planting more trees. And while you’re there, check out the videos that chronicle our projects in Haiti and share them with your friends. Then, share your ideas with other virtual tree planters from all around the world on the CONVERSATION tab.
We’re also working on some updates to the Virtual Forest, so stay tuned for those changes at the beginning of December.
And if you like the app, please nominate us for Most Creative Social Good Campaign for the Mashable Awards. Helping to spread the word about the Virtual Forest throughout the social media community equals more application users, which leads to more virtual trees, which means more real trees planted in Haiti. Let’s get to 1 million!
Help Protect America’s Great Outdoors
America’s Great Outdoors Initiative (AGO) was created to reconnect Americans to the outdoors and promote community-level efforts to conserve and restore our nation’s outdoor spaces — such as parks, trails, waterways, monuments, farms and forests. The campaign is focused on helping the federal government develop a timely and smart conservation and recreation strategy to protect our land, water and wildlife.
The administration is in the process of shaping that strategy, and is scheduled to release a report and recommendations later this month. You can help inform their recommendations and encourage them to do more to protect and preserve our outdoor spaces by sending a message of support through the AGO website, or by sharing your ideas and opinions on the AGO discussion board.
Speak up to help protect our great outdoors!
No Strong Men Were Injured in the Filming of This Commercial
The epic battle between strong and stronger, brought to you by Timberland PRO®:
Yes, we make some tough boots. We’re also interested in helping you stay on your feet in other ways: On the Timberland PRO® website, we’ve got a job search program to help locate job opportunities based on category (construction, automotive, manufacturing, etc.) and location. And through a partnership with Contractortalk.com, we’ve got a discussion board where different contractor-focused questions and problems are covered every week. Join the conversation — if you’ve got the best answer to the “World’s Toughest Problem,” you could win a free pair of Timberland PRO® Endurance boots!
40 Hours: What Footprint Would You Leave?
Every full-time Timberland employee is entrusted with 40 hours of paid time off (part-timers get 20) to serve in their communities and for organizations and causes that are important to them. 40 hours – that’s one full week, over the course of a year, in which they can invest their time and talent to whatever personal passions they have: coaching a soccer team, volunteering at a local animal shelter, organizing a fundraiser, stocking shelves at a food bank. No politics, no organized religious activities—otherwise, serve from your heart.
The program is called the Path of Service, and in the 18 years we’ve had it in place, my colleagues’ enthusiasm for the serving has inspired and astounded. And the good we’ve accomplished in communities around the world has grown exponentially.
As the CEO, I’m proud of Path of Service—it stands proof that for-profit business can be a force for positive social change, that we can deliver the quarter’s financial result, and make a difference in the communities we live and work in.
Service is a corporate value, but a personal choice and effort. As CEO, I need to ensure that our corporate investment in service serves our business strategies, explicitly and clearly. So—planting trees, serving on Earth Day, urban green space clean ups—the CEO spends plenty of hours underscoring that environmental sustainability is a key element of Timberland’s business strategy.
But the nice thing about volunteer service is, even the CEO is accountable for his or her own path of service. When I serve as Jeff the citizen—I can act on the passions that drive me, personally and individually.
As a blessed individual in this time and place, I can’t get my head around the reality of childhood hunger. Just can’t. And so for my personal 40 hours of citizen service, I am enrolled as a volunteer in the campaign to end childhood hunger in America by 2015.
End Childhood Hunger in America—end it. Yeah—I know the numbers, nearly 50 million Americans lack the means to regularly put enough nutritious food on their tables – and of that number, nearly 17 million are children—but I have seen what Share Our Strength is doing, state by state, to change this reality, and I know that this campaign can and will succeed. If you are interested, look at this link—nokidhungry.org. Ending childhood hunger is not a dream, it is a concrete and deliverable reality, and as citizen, this is where I’m investing my personal and passion.
I am grateful beyond words that I have 40 hours to feed my soul, and to dedicate to feeding hungry kids in America. Imagine if every business leader in corporate America had 40 hours to fight for his or her passion. I wonder–if you had 40 hours, what footprint would you leave?
Chicken Coops and Veggie Beds
Below, the latest update from Sandy McDowell and Courtney Baumann, our two Timberland Earthkeepers who have spent this week creating positive social and environmental impact in West Oakland, California:
Today I went to Serenity House — a facility for women recovering from addictions to drug and alcohol. They were so excited to get a garden. We put in two raised beds and planted their garden with them. It was an awesome experience because without our help, they could not have achieved this. It took awhile for some of the women to warm up but when I left, one woman was so overwhelmed she expressed how grateful she was that we were there to do this for them. I was really moved that we could really make a difference in their lives. This is what it’s all about.
-Sandy
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Hello! I have been working on building chicken coops for the last three days! On the first day, I thought we would be finished before the day was out, but not the case … 
We were really involved in the creative aspect of the whole process and allowed to give our input on how to make it better. I picked the chicken coop project because I felt like this was something that I could take home and possibly do myself — I would love to start something similar at my home.
After finishing today, I was filled with so much pride. One of the chicken coops we made is going to Makeda and Myron, two community members who have helped with this project all week. It was really inspiring to see how excited they are to receive it. They already have a garden in their backyard, aided by City Slicker Farms, and it’s just really great to hear how much it means to them.
This week has really flown by, and we have really accomplished some great things. We can’t wait to deliver our coops tomorrow!
-Courtney
West Coast Update
Our daily update from Timberland Earthkeeper Sandy McDowell, halfway through her week of community service and revitalization in West Oakland, CA:
Yesterday we installed solar panels on two houses in West Oakland. The company we worked with is called Grid Alternatives: they supply the solar panels and we install, with their help. I talked to a neighbor who said it reduced his electric bill to 8 dollars a month! We will finish that job today, and tomorrow we are building raised garden beds in West Oakland for City Slicker Farms.
I have met some awesome people in the neighborhood who are passionate for a better life. Can’t wait to share all of those stories.
Sandy
Postcards from California
Timberland Earthkeeper Sandy McDowell sent this short update from her week-long community service sabbatical in West Oakland, CA:
We arrived in California on Saturday and met the rest of our crew. On Sunday, we did a tour of the California Missions and saw all of the murals that are historic to the area. We then went to West Oakland and got some history on our project and work for the week ahead.
Today (Monday) was the first day of work. We weeded and planted in Wildcat Canyon Creek, then moved on to West Oakland and planted bamboo to help with the ecosystem. Tomorrow we start with City Slicker Farms (a local organization focused on meeting the immediate and basic needs for food security by creating high-yield urban farms and backyard gardens). Having a awesome experience so far!
Sandy
