50 MILLION TREE FROM TIMBERLAND TO 2025

News date: 6 October 2019

NATURE NEEDS HEROES – JOIN THE TEAM
#NatureNeedsHeroes

Timberland – one of the most responsible outdoor brands in the world – has set itself an ambitious goal. By 2025, it wants to plant 50 million trees worldwide, launching and participating in global afforestation programs. This position is the result of the brand’s business strategy, which has been focusing on responsible production and supporting local communities for over 20 years. Only since 2001, the company’s employees have managed to plant 10 million trees around the world – some of them also in Poland as part of the annual “Timberland Support” campaign.

AFFORESTATION AS A SOLUTION FOR A GREENHOUSE EFFECT

According to the latest research carried out by the Swiss university, ETH Zürich, restoring green areas through afforestation remains the most effective strategy to mitigate climate change. Researchers have determined that global afforestation actions could neutralize as much as 2/3 of greenhouse gases, which are the result of global populations. There is no need to tell anyone that the role of trees absorbing carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen, cooling the climate, preventing soil erosion and being reservoirs of water is very important.

That is why, the Timberland brand will be involved in global tree planting campaigns on various continents.

LIABILITY IS AN UNDERTAKING

“In Timberland, we are very aware of how contemporary lifestyle influences planet development,” and we believe that we have a mission as a global lifestyle brand. We have to set directions on how to act responsibly and make it better,” said Jim Pisani, the CEO of Timberland. “Trees and green areas change our planet into a more friendly space to live. Our commitment to plant 50 million trees is real, measurable and deeply rooted in the belief that a green future is a better future. We encourage everyone to join our campaign. All you need is to take small steps, which will be added to the driving force of great changes. Nature needs heroes.”

NATURE NEEDS HEROES

At the beginning, the brand also presents the global “Nature Needs Heroes” campaign, which is to encourage customers to make responsible purchases. 12 activists from various countries, environmentalists, photographers, solar battery designers, who are fighting for a better future for the Earth in their local communities have become the brand ambassadors around the world. They promote one of the most responsible collections. Individual profiles will be presented in Timberland salons and at Timberland.pl

“For over a dozen years, Timberland has been using recycled materials in its production. In the soles of our shoes, you can find rubber from recycled old car tires, in the lacing, lining, linear, we find processed PET bottles. 80% of Timberland cotton comes from organic cotton plantations or the Better Cotton Initiative – a global organization of organic and certified cotton. Wee do a lot to make every customer feel that by choosing the Timberland brand, he/she chooses a change for the better,” says Joanna Zając-Cekiera, the brand marketing manager of Timberland Polska.

– During this year’s Timberland Support campaign, we planted trees and shrubs in Pole Mokotowskie in Warsaw. We were able to implement products with the ReBOTL technology, i.e. a special material that was made of 100% recycled PET bottles. We will use it not only for the production of shoes, but also for our clothes. We believe that we are able to create the world of responsible clothing market – adds Joanna Zając-Cekiera.

50 MILLIONS? IT IS POSSIBLE

GREAT GREEN WALL

How does Timberland want to implement its resolution? All thanks to participation in global initiatives dealing with afforestation in various parts of the world, including:

Smallholder Farmers Alliance, GreenNetwork, TREE AID, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Connect4Climate – World Bank Group, Justdiggit, Las Lagunas Ecological Park, Trees for the Future, American Forests and Treedom.

The projects focus on planting trees in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, China and Mali. The latter country will be a special place because it is where the construction of GREAT GREEN WALL – a large green belt of trees to connect the east and west coast of Africa at the height of the Sahara – is being implemented, preventing desert migration, and thus fighting climate change, hunger, drought, conflicts and forced migration.

“I believe that each of us can be a hero,” says Inna Modja, musician, activist, ambassador of the Great green Wall project. “Recycling, products from reliable sources – we can support climate improvement on a daily basis in various ways. As a resident of Mali, Modja is one of the heroes of the Nature Needs Heroes campaign in Timberland.