Word: timberlands
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...with such farming façades, which exploit tax breaks that, ironically, were meant to combat sprawl. Idaho in March eliminated its "developer's discount," which benefited nonworking farms. But in South Carolina--where a $7 million, five-acre beachfront lot on upscale Kiawah Island is taxed just $9.60 as timberland--the agricultural commissioner has said "defining what a 'real farm' is can be very difficult...
...presentations. A photographer for The Associated Press captured the footwear of several panelists at the 2005 meeting, most of whom sported traditional, black dress shoes. But Summers, prepared for the snowy conditions and freezing temperatures in Davos, Switzerland, donned a slightly less academic pair of Timberland boots (see picture at right). As the 2006 meeting begins tomorrow, will Summers go with the practical footwear once again, or will he opt for his Sunday best...
Trouble was, the new glues cost three times as much. So Timberland's engineers cut the volume of the adhesive required to manufacture the boots enough to break even. "I can now make the fact-based case to the hardest-nosed engineer in the world that we've eliminated the volume of volatile organic compounds" without increasing costs, says Swartz. "That's not limousine liberal, not self-indulgent. It is hard-nosed business. That is the innovation we seek." When foreign vendors complain that water-based adhesives are too expensive, Swartz says, Timberland invites their engineers to its plant...
...glues added value to a brand worn by environmentally conscious outdoor enthusiasts. But there's another reason: the effect Swartz believes such socially responsible initiatives have on the rank and file of his company. That also accounts, in part, for why he has installed stringent fair-labor policies at Timberland's factories and those of its vendors in Asia, Eastern Europe and North Africa. Timberland does not allow workers to put in more than 60 hours a week--a rule that has provoked much grumbling abroad, where laborers often want to work more. (Swartz says that the policy is nonnegotiable...
...them a huge return on investment. That return is employee satisfaction--assuming that people like to work for companies that do good, a belief notoriously difficult to prove. (Citing internal surveys, Swartz says his employees identify strongly with the company's human-rights positions.) That reasoning also supports Timberland's current drive with actor Don Cheadle to raise awareness about the genocide raging in Darfur, Sudan. Although it doesn't cost the company much, the campaign could be dismissed as the sort of self-indulgent do-gooding or splashy p.r. drive that irritates some CSR activists as much...