Page 10 - Logistics News June 2016

sustainability

Setting goals for
healthy sustainability

Acknowledgement to CSCMP Supply Chain Smartbrief

Timberland is a longstanding sustainability leader within the apparel industry. As the
company learned that more of its stakeholders wanted these products to be manufactured
sustainably, Timberland shifted its business practices in kind, and meanwhile started to issue

audited sustainability reports well before they became the norm for large corporations.

TIMBERLAND SETS long-term goals every In addition, Timberland promises to boost
five years, and it recently revealed its agenda its volunteer programme, which already has a
leading to 2020. The New Hampshire-based reputation in the industry for being robust. On a
US company is a favourite of the outdoorsy broader environmental front, the company says
crowd, and its shoes and boots are popular it will plant 10-million trees, create and restore
not only for their reputation as being sturdy outdoor spaces in urban areas, and get 50% of
and rugged, but for their enduring status as its facilities’ energy either directly from clean-
a fashion statement as well. The company’s energy sources or the purchase of renewable
updated goals include: energy certificates (RECs).
• All Timberland footwear will include at least
Making a supply chain more sustainable
one component that is recycled, organic or is far more difficult than it sounds, especially
made from renewable materials. to consumers who simply see a product on a
• All cotton used in apparel will come from US- shelf and think, ‘Come on, surely this can be
origin, organically grown or sourced by Better made with organic or recycled materials’. But
Cotton Initiative growers. transforming a company’s supplier base is a
• All footwear and outerwear leather will come massive challenge, especially when the farms
from tanneries certified as Gold or Silver by the and factories providing materials are thousands
Leather Working Group. of kilometres away. Nevertheless, Timberland is
• All footwear will be free of PVCs. bullish about what it can achieve.

8 June 2016 | Logistics News