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Corporate Social Responsibility
News
2.08.2006 ET
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CSR News from:
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Timberland Joins Ceres' Facility Reporting Project
Manufacturer is 2nd NH Firm to Participate in Cutting-Edge Program
(CSRwire) BOSTON --The Timberland Company in Stratham, N.H. has joined
the Facility Reporting Project (FRP), a new initiative of the Boston-based
Ceres coalition aimed at improving sustainability reporting and
environmental performance at individual facilities across the country.
Timberland is among two New Hampshire companies and eight nationwide that
have agreed to be pilot test participants in the Facility Reporting
Project. The second Granite State company is New Hampshire Ball Bearings,
which has agreed to create a facility-level environmental report for its
Peterborough, N.H. operation.
Timberland, a global leader in the design, engineering and marketing of
premium-quality footwear, apparel and accessories, will develop a
sustainability report for its Dominican Republic manufacturing facility,
using draft reporting guidance developed by FRP over the past two years.
Timberland and NH Ball Bearings' experience will help the FRP develop its
final Sustainability Reporting Guidance, which it expects to issue later
this year.
"This new agreement with Timberland is a key milestone in Ceres' efforts
to bring the Facility Reporting Project to as many companies and
facilities as possible," said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres,
"Timberland and NH Ball Bearings both deserve kudos for recognizing the
importance of facility-wide reporting and investing time and energy to
develop a program that will bring environmental benefits all across the
country."
"We are thrilled to work with Ceres on this project and hope the
collaboration will expand our understanding of Timberland's environmental
and social impacts in the many communities where the company and our
suppliers operate," said Alex Hausman, business performance analyst at
Timberland. "Through the FRP process, we will develop a model report that
we can use when we engage with our suppliers and contractors to improve
their management systems, performance and overall community
engagement."
Timberland's affiliation with FRP comes on the heels of full disclosure of
its vendor factory list in its recently released 2004 Corporate Social
Responsibility Report. Timberland partners with vendor factories in more
than 200 facilities in Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean.
Ceres, with technical assistance from the Tellus Institute, launched the
FRP in 2002 to help companies improve facility-specific reporting and
performance on sustainability challenges, such as workplace conditions,
energy usage or global climate change. The project builds on Ceres' launch
of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in the late 1990s, which has since
become the de-facto international standard for corporate reporting on
economic, social and environmental performance.
Other pilot participants include Ford Motor Company, YSI, Northside Foods
- a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, Harwood Products - a California-based
sustainable timber company, and Rockwell Collins. All facilities,
including Timberland's, will have an opportunity to gain technical
assistance from Ceres to create facility-level environmental and
sustainability reports.
Ceres is a national coalition of investors, environmental groups and other
public interest organizations working with companies to address
sustainability challenges. To learn more about the organization visit http://www.ceres.org
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