Posts within ‘Who We Are, What We Do: TBL Culture & People’
Earthkeepers Cab Confessions
There’s nothing like a late night and a little mountain air to loosen people up. While at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival last week, we offered free taxi rides to Festival attendees in exchange for their “Earthkeepers confessions.” Our passengers shared enlightening, inspiring and just plain entertaining thoughts about what they do (or DON’T do) to make a positive impact on the environment. See for yourself:
Don’t forget to visit the Festivals page on our website to check out the rest of our photos and videos from Sundance 2012.
Who Needs An Angry Bird When You’ve Got a 6 Inch Boot?
Bad weather, bad cold, bad day … we can appreciate that even the most hardcore outdoor enthusiast needs some down time inside once in a while. Check out the new Games section on our website, where you can take quizzes to find out what kind of tree personality you have (sturdy oak or flirty palm?) and what your packing habits say about you.
If quizzes aren’t your thing, try the bottle crusher game: Using the hard core soles of your virtual boots to destroy as many plastic bottles as you can is dangerously addictive.
Those of you looking for games with greater goodness, check out our Earthkeepers virtual forest. You create the forest, invite your friends to join you there, and plant virtual trees. For every tree you plant in the virtual forest, you’ll help Timberland plant a real tree in Haiti. And isn’t that better than any trinket you ever won at the arcade?
Click here. Play now. It’s all fun and games until the next snowstorm takes your power out.
Earthkeeping Pledges Aplenty at Sundance
The scene at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival hasn’t been all snow and celebrities (although apparently there’s been loads of both) … at the Timberland booth, festival-goers are invited to make their own personal pledge to help preserve the environment and protect the outdoors. Here’s Amanda with a show and tell:
And, here are more of our favorite pledges that have come in at Sundance so far:
Inspired to make your own Earthkeeping pledge? Share it with us here. And stay tuned … the curtain doesn’t close at the Sundance Film Festival for a few more days, and we’ve got lots more to share. You can find additional videos and photos from our Timberland team’s Sundance experience on the Festivals page of our website.
Kicking Off 20 Years of Timberland Service
Freezing temps and snowy grounds aren’t enough to keep Timberland employees from pulling on their boots to serve. This week, nine employee volunteers—including Timberland President Patrik Frisk—helped rejuvenate a local senior housing complex by repainting an indoor corridor. “Service is a great way to build community and meet people you wouldn’t normally get to work with,” Patrik (the second to arrive on the scene and the first to dig in to prep work) said.
Our service partner, Seacoast Adopt-a-Block, is an awesome organization that formed in 2005 to improve the community and help serve others. They explain, “Our vision was to never do this for money or recognition but to get to know our neighbors and help make their lives a little easier. That is what being a community all is about.” We agree!
This week’s event kicks off a monthly series of service projects planned to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Timberland’s Path of Service program. The program gives employees paid time off to perform community service. We have the option to serve as we like, whether it’s leading a Girl Scout troop, coaching youth sports, working at an animal shelter, etc.
We’ve been delighted to find that VF, our new parent company, has embraced the Path of Service with open arms—and is actively exploring how to grow the program among their other outdoor brands. Through service, we aim to be responsible corporate citizens, giving back to the communities in which we live and work. Pleasant side effects include increased employee engagement, boosted morale, and new friendships.
Keep your eyes open for more service stories as 2012 progresses!
Postcards from Park City
Welcome to Park City
The forecast for this week’s 2012 Sundance Film Festival calls for cold snow, fabulous films and moderate-to-heavy celebrity sightings:
Group shot of Caroline Lagerfelt from Gossip Girl and the gang from General Hospital sporting their new Timberland boots
Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul
We caught up with Melissa Roy from Outsourced and CSI on Main Street - nice jacket!
DJ Mick Boogie keeps warm in his Timberland gear
Julia Yorks braving the Park City winter in her Timberland gear!
For more pics and updates from Park City, visit the Festivals page of our website.
Timberland Haiti and President Clinton: Remembering and Rebuilding
Timberland’s vice president of supply chain, Gareth Brooks, shared the following update with the Timberland community today. 2 years after the Haiti earthquake, our commitment to helping that nation rebuild continues.
On Wednesday, just one day before the 2nd anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, I had the honor of hosting former President Bill Clinton at our new factory there. He came, along with staff from The Clinton Foundation, to raise awareness for the continued need for economic development in Haiti – and today, January 12, he’ll attend memorial services for the victims.
Former President Clinton at Timberland's factory in Haiti
Two years later, the country is still devastated by the effect of the earthquake and governmental efforts to rebuild are progressing slowly. Timberland has opened a factory in Haiti not only because it makes good commercial sense, but also because it supports our commitment to community. We’re making products that require specific skills to create, and we’re providing the extensive training required to do so; Haiti doesn’t have a heritage of shoemaking, but our dedicated Haitian staff have demonstrated a willingness to learn.
Handstitchers at work
Since the factory opened in June, we have recruited and trained nearly 150 employees to make handsewn uppers. Our expansion within the facility continues, and next spring we plan to open our first cut-to-box manufacturing line which will produce our first “Made In Haiti” classic handsewns.
Handstitched upper, made in Haiti
In addition to creating jobs and training people to fill them, Timberland also has a significant agro-forestry program in Haiti that combines tree planting and farmer education in a way that is community-managed, self-financed and replicable. Three hundred local farmers volunteer to operate the tree nurseries that supply trees for food, fuel and building material. And, the program is designed to develop each nursery to be self-sustaining after 3 years. Our program has already resulted in almost 2 million trees planted in Haiti; in one of the most deforested nations in the world, the importance of trees can’t be underestimated.
I was proud to join our team in Haiti yesterday, as they shared with President Clinton this amazing facility and the progress we’re making in both manufacturing great products and engaging in the local community.
Where Every Day is a Snow Day
We teamed up with Outside Television to talk with Jesse Davenport– an extreme skier, mother of 3 and Aspen local who loves winter weather as much as she loves her job as a ski patroller. And really – what’s not to love?
You don’t have to live slopeside to share Jesse’s enthusiasm for everything that’s wonderful about winter; declare your own personal snow day and then go outside to enjoy it! Really, go. But be sure to gear up first.
Winter in New England: Don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes.
Hopefully you were like me and had a wonderful holidays and a happy New Year’s. With kids who now can understand the concept of presents, a heavy-set man in a red suit and reindeer, this year was busier than ever. We spent our holiday time in Southern Vermont aka Ski Town Central, where everything centers around skiing or snowboarding with a healthy dose of maple syrup. Unfortunately, Mother Nature reminded us how fickle she can be. We experienced 20 degree temperature swings on a daily basis, which results in snow (25°F) then no snow (45°F) then harsh wind (9°F) then rain (35°F). It truly was like that old New England adage, “Don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes.”
Of course, my entire family was bummed with the lack of snow, but made the most of it. The bigger, scarier concern was the impact these fluctuating temperatures had on local snow-related businesses. The region is still recovering from the impact of Tropical Storm Irene which brought torrential floods. Across the entire country, ski resorts and snow towns are all crying “Uncle” with the lack of snow. It really hit home when people decide to go golfing at the local links rather than traveling to the ski hill. On my personal tally, I noticed that I had double or triple the number of days surfing as I did snowboarding so far this season.
Backcountry.com posted this picture that shows the difference in weather patterns between January 2011 and January 2012. It’s pretty eye-opening. The only silver lining that I can see from this sad situation is that I overheard more than one conversation in Ski Town Central about how “global warming is really real.” It appears that these rapidly fluctuating temperatures, which impacted holiday spirit, recreational fun and the economy opened a few eyes to some of our very real climate concerns.
From our family’s perspective, the snow conditions may have been horrid, but it was our daughter’s first time on a snowboard so she didn’t mind the fluctuating temperature as long as there was a little patch of white and hot cocoa at the end of the day.
Free Music Friday: Emily Elbert
Peace, love and positivity — those are the messages Emily Elbert tries to convey through her music. And at just 22 years old, this Berklee College of Music senior has already had plenty of opportunity to spread her good words, in concerts throughout the US and across the globe.
Eco-conscious could be another message from this Texas native, whose environmentally-friendly actions include carpooling, using recycled and recyclable goods and eating local-grown foods whenever she can.
Emily is talented, adorable and passionate about the environment … and she’s our artist of the month for January. Watch her video, and then visit our music page to download her song “To Stay Alive in the World” (it’s free!).
A Tour of Timberland Canada’s New Uber Green HQ
A few months ago, after spending some time at the Toronto International Film Festival, I had the privilege of visiting Timberland Canada’s Headquarters at the Evergreen Brick Works campus, a community environmental center that inspires and equips visitors to live, work and play more sustainably. Evergreen, a national charity, transformed the former Don Valley Brick Works from a collection of deteriorating buildings into an international showcase for urban sustainability and green design.
Josh, Timberland Canada marketer and tour guide extraordinaire, showed me around, pointing out features that make this campus the epitome of sustainable building and design. LEED® Platinum Certified, the center is expected to reduce energy consumption by more than 50 percent. While that alone is impressive, I was really blown away by the innovative eco-conscious features we found around every corner. A few of my favorites:
- The Evergreen Brick Works building was constructed on top of the foundation from the former Don Valley Brick works – they even left the old graffiti on the bricks!
- There’s a garden center filled with local produce on site, with proceeds going to fund Evergreen’s efforts.
- Solar Chimneys help remove hot air from the building and reduce the need for air conditioning.
- Large rainwater harvesting cisterns collect rainwater from the rooftops and reuse it in the campus’ toilets and garden.
- The parking lot’s concrete is pervious, which allows water to go back into the ground and maintain a natural cycle.
- The LED parking lot lights are specially designed to direct light downward, keeping the sky naturally dark for bats, insects and other animals.
You can learn more about Evergreen Brick Works, and even take your own tour, at http://ebw.evergreen.ca/ .
