Timberland Earthkeepers with Cone

Situation Analysis

On June 9, 2008, Timberland, who is widely seen as an innovator in CSR practices, announced the launch of the EarthKeepers campaign. EarthKeepers consists of an online network of those who inspire environmental behavior change. An EarthKeeper is simply someone who cares about the environment and is willing to do his or her part every day to preserve it for future generations.

Timberland believes that businesses have a responsibility to the community and to its consumers to do “good.” Timberland’s goal is to inspire environmental stewardship by consumers. The company is committed to reducing its environmental impact through the use of more renewable energy, more recycled/reusable materials, less waste, fewer chemicals and more trees. Commitments include greening 300 communities in the next two years, and planting one million trees by 2010. Timberland believes in transparency and engagement. They are now reporting corporate responsibility performance quarterly and online and adhere to rigorous Global Reporting Initiative reporting (GRI) standards in areas such as supply chain and human rights. The company’s 2007 report recently won an NGO award for its quality.

Timberland has been an innovator in providing easy-to-understand environmental information on consumer products. In 2007, they introduced the Green Index rating. This rating gives consumers clear and easy-to-understand information about the impact their footwear choices have on the environment. The product-specific environmental information includes climate impact, chemicals used, and resource consumption.

The company encourages active citizenship from themselves and consumers to make a lasting change. This is evident in Timberland’s commitment to environmental stewardship, global human rights and community involvement.

With a goal of recruitment and change, Timberland enlisted Cone’s CSR experience to create an innovative approach to coincide with the launching of the campaign that strives to educate consumers in a way that is meaningful and impactful to their demographic.

Objectives

  • Recruit 1 million EarthKeepers
  • Advance Timberland’s corporate and brand reputation as environmental leader
  • Introduce engagers and youth activists to the Timberland brand experience
  • Deliver social value to Timberland communities
  • Generate 50 million consumer and business media impressions

Program Elements

EarthKeepers consists of an innovative network of online social networking tools, consisting of partnerships with YouTube and Changents.com, a strong Facebook presence, a richly populated EarthKeeper blog, and more.

Changents.com is a web network that connects innovators on the front lines of social and environmental change with those that want to help them. Timberland sponsors five groups/individuals of EarthKeeper Changents, including:

  • Big Green Bus is a group of Dartmouth students who traveled around the country in a bus fueled by waste cooking oil.
  • The Canary Project consists of a couple who captures and conveys the story of human-induced climate change through visual media, events, and artwork in order to energize a commitment for solutions.
  • Agent 350 is an individual who is a part of the largest grassroots “open source” climate activist movement in the world. Agent 350 calls for 350 attention-to-climate focused stunts around the world.
  • Reverb is a group that travels with major touring brands to help educate and engage fans around environmental sustainability. Concert audiences have the chance to experience how the Reverbs work with live music tours to minimize their environmental footprint.
  • The POWERleap, invented by 23-year-old Elizabeth Redmond, is a flooring system designed for high foot-traffic urban areas that generate electricity via human footfall.

The EarthKeeper YouTube brand channel is where consumers can learn about EarthKeepers and register via a Green Index gadget to join the movement. EarthKeepers can compete for prizes through environmental video contests, see what other EarthKeepers are doing to help the environment and learn how Timberland is doing its part.

The EarthKeeper group page on Facebook is another place consumers can learn about being an EarthKeeper and Timberland’s EarthKeeping efforts. Facebook users are encouraged to download and virally share the EarthKeeper Plant a Tree application and Timberland will plant a real tree on their behalf.

Results

  • Over 158,000 people have registered as EarthKeepers since the launch
  • Over 950,000 trees planted on the EarthKeeper Facebook application
  • 109,862,099 impressions since June 2008