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shoes boots recycled materials




  • Slow down with the praise

  • Everybody needs to relax on the praise here. Timberland receives so much of it because they highlight how transparent they are ie. with quarterly reporting of CSR benchmarks. Transparency is key to sustainability - how else can we measure up a company's claims to its actual change in impact. But, just because they say what they're doing and provide data to indicate they are keeping up with their goals does not make them truly efficient, carbon-neutral, environmentally friendly, or any other good phrases a company would like to be associated with. If they send out a press release saying, "we planned to power ourselves with .01% renewable energy by August 14, 2009, and here we are, with one wind turbine," that does not mean they've accomplished much besides being truthful. This is EXACTLY what Ford has been getting awards for by CSR reporting agencies, and look, they make cars, and not even good ones. What we're doing is lauding the wrong things. We should start our clapping when their transparency verifies they've met an admirable goal. As of now, they still use materials that produce a lot of carbon and necessitate the raising of cattle just for their hides. And, their business requires them to continually make more and more of these - it's not a one time buy. And lastly, they have not developed a perfect collection process for their old footwear, something necessary for any responsible company and something definitely needed for their cradle to cradle model.
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