To highlight its environmental stewardship to its consumers, Timberland did two things: first, it put labels on its shoe boxes to give consumers information on key manufacturing issues including environmental impact, community impact, and manufacturing location. Second, it developed the ‘Green Index’ tag – a label and rating system that provides more specific environmental impact information in three key areas: climate impact, chemical use, and resource consumption.

Timberland at a glance

Timberland is one of the world’s leading clothing and footwear companies.

Employees:	5,527 (2007)
Carbon footprint:	29,070 metric tonnes CO2e (2006) (Scope 1 and Scope 2)
Revenue:	$1.57 billion (2006)

The challenge

Measuring a carbon footprint

Developing both the label and the ‘Green Index’ meant measuring exactly what greenhouse gases were emitted at each stage of Timberland’s supply chain. The same information also had to be worked out for individual products. For the index to be credible, it had to be completely accurate and presented in a way that people could understand.

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The solution

Partnerships

Timberland’s strategic partnerships with organizations including The Climate Group, Clean Air-Cool Planet and Businesses for Social Responsibility’s Clean Cargo Working Group helped guide the development of their greenhouse gas emissions inventory. When creating the nutrition label, Timberland developed its methodology through consultation from Five Winds and other footwear and apparel companies and used GaBi software to conduct product lifecycle analyses.

Process

To get the level of detail needed for the Green Index tag, the company developed a ‘Green Index tool’. It took six months to make this tool accurate enough to measure the carbon impact of individual products; a process which required improved factory communication to streamline data collection.

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The result

Successful eco-labelling

In autumn 2006, Timberland’s labels started appearing on shoeboxes. Designed like US Food and Drug Administration nutrition labels, they told consumers how much energy the company used, what chemicals it used, where its products were made and what labour hours were involved. Timberland then launched the Green Index tag on some of its products the following spring. The index measured, on a scale from 0 (best) to 10 (worst), each pair of shoes’ impact on climate change as well as the resources and chemicals used to make them.

Cost-cutting

The company discovered that the best way to cut a shoe’s environmental impact is to use fewer, lighter materials, and fewer volatile organic compounds. As a result, its product design teams have cut 10-15% off the overall weight of many of their shoes. This has cut both procurement and transport costs.

Stronger supplier relationships

The audit of Timberland’s supply chain for the Green Index helped the company find ways to streamline its transport and become more energy efficient. The process has also helped it develop stronger relationships with its suppliers – relationships that will help the company reduce its environmental impact further in the future.

An industry role model

The label and index tag have been such a success that Timberland plans to put the Green Index tag on all of its shoes and clothes by 2009. In addition, Timberland is working with other companies to create a standard label for the whole industry.

Lessons learnt

Simplicity is key. Timberland’s Green Index worked because the 0-10 scale was easy to understand.

Auditing your carbon footprint can help you reduce your procurement, operation and transport costs.

More than half of the energy used to make a pair of shoes comes from processing and producing the raw materials. This is the complete opposite to what Timberland expected.