Timberland Carbon Neutral

Timberland have a strong CSR commitment. In 2008 they launched their long term CSR strategy, based around 4 ‘pillars’, these being Energy, Product, Workplace and Service. Their main aim under the Energy pillar was to become carbon neutral by 2010. Sounds great doesn’t it! But for such a large global company to become carbon neutral, seems too good to be true? However, closer inspection shows that this commitment only covers their direct carbon emissions from their own factories, shops and offices, which is in fact, only 4% of their overall carbon footprint. The other 96% comes from the carbon footprint associated with their supply chain. Misleading points like this make me wonder whether it’s more for the good of their image than the environment, however, every little helps! It is good that they are doing something rather than nothing, setting the wheels in motion. Of course it is now the end of 2010 and Timberland haven’t quite reached their carbon neutral goal, due to ‘increase in air travel caused by the rebound in our business’. It’s worth keeping up with their developments at http://community.timberland.com/Corporate-Responsibility/csr