11.01.2005 ET

(CSRwire) STRATHAM, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 2005--The Timberland Company (NYSE: TBL) today issued its third corporate social responsibility (CSR) report highlighting Timberland's CSR priorities, programs, progress and challenges related to global human rights, environmental stewardship, community involvement, and employee engagement. The report, which is based on the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), also includes the Company's voluntary disclosure of the names and locations of more than 160 active contract factories that make Timberland(R) products worldwide. Timberland's CSR report and its contract factory list are posted on Timberland's website at www.timberlandserve.com.

"It's been several years since Timberland last reported publicly on our activities and efforts to be a good corporate citizen," said Jeffrey B. Swartz, Timberland's President and Chief Executive Officer.
"That is not to say that we haven't tried to produce a CSR report since that time. In fact, we've started several. But each time, we ultimately decided that it wasn't enough. There were too many holes, too many questions and not enough concrete, tangible, reliable information to share. And, in this age of too many voices and not enough time to listen, we felt it best not to add one more voice to the conversation unnecessarily."

"We are very excited to share with you Timberland's third CSR report. Inside, you'll find a lot of what you'd expect - updates on the work we are doing to strengthen communities, protect our environment and improve global labor standards as well as recognition that while we are making progress, there is still a lot of work ahead of us. We also hope you will find things you'd not expect, such as comprehensive GRI-based reporting that measures Timberland's policies and practices against this independent multi-stakeholder institution's expectations and detailed information on how we plan to make our best efforts even better going forward."

Report Highlights

Timberland's report relies heavily on the guidelines issued by the GRI and primarily covers the 2004 calendar year. Highlights include:

-- Timberland's 2004 audits of 94% of its contract factory base
identified health and safety, compensation and fair and equal
treatment as the three most frequent areas where infractions
of its Code of Conduct occurred. Because of our concern with
both the frequency of code infractions and the challenges of
understanding root causes of these infractions, the Company
rolled out a new assessment process in 2005 that includes
standardized root cause analyses, factory risk assessments and
identification and sharing of leading practices throughout our
contract supplier base.

-- Timberland has made significant progress in reducing our
contributions to climate change that include lighting
retrofits in our U.S. distribution centers to simultaneously
improve lighting quality while reducing energy use by nearly
40%; the installation of sleep mode software on computer
monitors to reduce global electricity usage by more than
237,000 kilowatt hours; and the use of U.S. Green Building
Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental standards in
all new specialty store construction.

-- Timberland continued to demonstrate its commitment to citizen
service through its Path of Service(TM) program. Through this
program, Timberland employees served more than 55,000 hours
globally, engaging nearly 8,500 consumers and partners in 27
countries.

Timberland's CSR report and its contract factory list are posted on Timberland's website at www.timberlandserve.com.

Timberland (NYSE: TBL) is a global leader in the design, engineering and marketing of premium-quality footwear, apparel and accessories for consumers who value the outdoors and their time in it.

Timberland(R) products offer quality workmanship and detailing and are built to withstand the elements of nature. The Company's products can be found in leading department and specialty stores as well as Timberland(R) retail stores throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, South Africa and the Middle East. More information about Timberland is available on the Company's website and in its reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Copyright Business Wire 2005

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