6.17.2008 - 12:04pm ET

(CSRwire) STRATHAM, NH,. - June 17, 2008 - The Timberland Company today announced several innovative changes in how it publicly reports on its corporate social responsibility (CSR) work. The company, which has traditionally reported its CSR performance in an annual report format, is moving to quarterly updates of key CSR metrics – the first of which is now available on the Timberland page at JustMean (http://timberland.justmeans.com). Full CSR reports will still be available every two years with the 2007-2008 corporate CSR report scheduled for release in Spring 2009.

JustMeans (www.justmeans.com) is a social media platform that rallies both companies and individuals around social responsibility. Timberland intends to leverage JustMeans and Web 2.0 to scale the conversations with its stakeholders around CSR issues material to their organization.

"As our stakeholder community grows increasingly sophisticated in their understanding of sustainability issues, they demand greater information about our CSR initiatives," explains Alex Hausman, Timberland's CSR Reporting Manager."This is where transparency and accountability – through accessible, relevant and timely information about our work in CSR – is critical."

Developing a full CSR report is a time-intensive process, generally taking about nine months – and allowing little time for investments in process improvements, development of data infrastructure, testing new mediums and other innovations necessary in effective CSR reporting. As a consequence, Timberland has decided to move to a two-year cycle for publishing full CSR reports.

The obvious drawback to a two-year reporting cycle is decreased communication between a company and its stakeholders – vital to the success of a CSR program.To counterbalance the two-year reporting structure, Timberland will release an online "dashboard" of performance metrics quarterly, communicating progress against key CSR initiatives. Both the dashboard and quarterly reporting process was reviewed by a Ceres-convened stakeholder group who provided guidance on the initiative.

"We believe in the adage, 'what gets measured gets managed,'" said Hausman. "Quarterly reporting will strengthen our communication with stakeholders, and also drive progress internally against our CSR initiatives."

Timberland's quarterly CSR dashboard contains performance metrics for four areas: energy, product, workplaces and service. These focus areas are the product of a year-long process to refine Timberland's long-term CSR strategy. The result is four goals, each supported by a scorecard of metrics with targets set out to 2015. The dashboard that is made publicly available is a collection of key performance indicators from those scorecards.

The four "pillars" of Timberland's strategy are:

• Become carbon neutral by 2010 [energy]
  
• Design cradle-to-cradle product
  
• Fair, safe and non-discriminatory workplaces
  
• 2008-2009: service campaign: Community Greening

For more information please contact:

Commitment to Transparency: This organization is committed to transparency and stakeholder dialogue and encourages your comments and feedback.

Post a comment below: Ashley Fidel    2008-06-30 12:35:23 Hi CSRWire, Thanks for the great article on Timberland and their CSR reporting through JustMeans! We are really excited about helping companies move toward transparency and engage in social responsibility. Beyond our CSR reporting, I want to let you know about some of other services and features: 1.Talent: For individuals, there are over 2,000 job listings in the CSR field or offered by socially responsible companies. We also help companies boost their CSR initiatives and departments through job listings and recruitment services. 2.Communications: Through the JustMeans platform, partnerships between individuals and companies are formed across fields of responsibility and across geographic regions. 3.Technology: We offer social media build-outs and customized platforms for companies that want to engage in internet media beyond their traditional websites. Thanks again for the great post and please check out our new All Things Reconsidered blog! Ashley Fidel JustMeans New York Associate www.justmeans.com afidel@justmeans.com *Your Comment: *Name: *E-mail (will not be displayed):   Notify me when others add comments to this discussion. Verification String (Six characters shown at left)