Following a commitment to increase the amount of recycled, organic or renewable (ROR) content in ts shoes, Timberland now says materials with at least 10% ROR content were used in 67% of all Timberland footwear shipped.
And the company has also announced a significant improvement in its use of best in class tanneries, revealing a rise in the overall volume of leather produced at tanneries with a Gold or Silver rating as determined by the cross-brand Leather Working Group (LWG), which awards its marks 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.
However, despite recent progress, work remains. "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," the report said.
