Timberland has once again increased the use of organic, US-origin and Better Cotton in its products and continues to progress towards its 2020 sustainability goals.
The company’s just-released third-quarter 2018 corporate social responsibility report shows the latest results towards its five-year performance targets across three core CSR pillars – product, outdoors and community.
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Timberland’s global apparel production, which accounts for 89% of all cotton sourced, has “significantly” increased its use of responsible cotton. During Q3, 99.8% of its cotton used was either organic, Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) certified, or US origin. In addition, 64% of the cotton used in Timberland apparel, accessories and licensed goods was either organic (15.5%), BCI certified (44.5%) or US-origin (4%). The brand is working towards achieving 100% by 2020.
Materials
In 2017, the brand – owned by US apparel giant VF Corp – changed its method of reporting the use of material containing recycled, organic or renewable (ROR) content. From 2011 to 2016, all materials were reported, including those used in minor components such as webbings, trims and labels. To drive focus towards using ROR materials in more significant components of footwear (e.g., uppers, linings, soles), the company is no longer including minor components in its reporting.
As such, significant materials with at least 10% ROR content were used in 67% of all Timberland footwear shipped.
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By GlobalDataThough this appears to be a reduction in ROR usage, Timberland said its use of recycled PET increased by the equivalent of 3m plastic bottles. In 2017, it incorporated over 890,232 pounds of recycled PET into its footwear – the equivalent of 40m plastic water bottles.
“We are confident we will still be able to hit our 2020 goal with these more stringent requirements and believe this change in reporting will lead to increased overall usage of ROR content across our business,” the brand said.
Timberland is also working to eliminate per-fluorinated compounds (PFCs) completely from durable water repellants (DWR) used in its products by 2020 and to phasing out the use of PVC, with an end goal of being PVC-free by 2020.
“In 2017, 3% of total footwear shipped contained PVC, versus 2.3% in 2016. “While not yet at 100% PVC-free, we are proud of the progress that we’ve made over the years to phase PVC out of our footwear,” Timberland said.
Meanwhile, in terms of the materials used in its products, Timberland said its average use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) per pair of shoes was 56 grams during the quarter, a slight increase over 52 grams in the year-ago period.
The company said strategies implemented in its owned-manufacturing facility in the Dominican Republic have enabled it to keep its VOC usage to a minimum. These strategies include employee training, better containment of VOC adhesives to prevent evaporation, upgrading VOC application equipment, more targeted application, and increased material pre-treatment processes to minimise the VOC adhesives needed.
“While progress has been made over the years, there is still work to be done with our suppliers to improve their chemical management practices further and to identify new alternatives for lower VOC adhesion methods that maintain the necessary performance attributes for our product lines,” the firm said in its report. “We remain committed to our goal of averaging 42 grams of VOCs per pair by 2020.”
Meanwhile, the firm booked a rise in the overall volume of leather produced at tanneries with a Gold or Silver rating from the cross-brand Leather Working Group (LWG). LWG certification is awarded to tanneries that demonstrate environmental best practices and performance in all areas of leather production, from chemical, water and waste management to energy use and hide traceability.
During the third quarter, 95.7% of the group’s overall leather volume for Timberland footwear, apparel, accessories and licensed products was produced at tanneries that have a Gold or Silver LWG rating. This compares to 93.7% in the year-ago period. When looking at leather used for Timberland footwear only, 99.5% came from tanneries rated Gold or Silver. The firm remains committed to its goal to limit production at non-certified tanneries until they achieve Gold or Silver status.
Manufacturing
At the end of Q3 2018, there were 421 factories actively producing for Timberland. Broken down by business unit, this equates to 59 footwear factories, 165 apparel factories, 88 factories producing licensed goods and accessories, 32 tanneries, 63 fabric mills, and component suppliers, and 14 independent distributor factories.
171 (40%) were rated as accepted, meaning there are no serious safety, health, or labour issues and the facility is certified to produce VF products for 12 months, while 249 (59%) were ranked as developmental, meaning there are some minor safety, health, or labour issues. These factories are authorised to produce for VF while the issues identified are corrected in a timely manner and a follow-up audit is scheduled within 6–9 months. If the problems are corrected as required, then the status of the factory will be elevated to ‘accepted.’ If not, the factory is downgraded to ‘pending rejection-180 days’, at which time they have a final six months to satisfactorily resolve the outstanding issues or be downgraded.
One factory at the end of the third quarter was rated rejected.
Timberland, along with other VF Corporation brands, recently published full supply chain transparency footprint maps on nine of its most iconic products. The source maps, available on VF’s sustainability website, help ensure every step in the production of VF’s apparel and footwear meets the corporation’s standards of quality, sustainability and social responsibility – from raw material extraction to VF distribution centres.
The interactive maps display the number and locations of suppliers in a region and users can zoom in for a close-up look at each supplier, including onsite inspections, verifications, and associate interviews.
