Reprint: R1009A
Swartz awoke on June 1, 2009, to find the first of what, over time, would amount to 65,000 angry e-mails accusing Timberland of destroying Amazon rain forests and exacerbating global warming. The senders were reacting to a Greenpeace report alleging that Brazilian cattle farmers were illegally clear-cutting forests to create pastures, and leather from their cows might be winding up in Timberland’s boots. Swartz and his team had to craft a response immediately: The brand’s reputation was at stake.
He realized that the underlying question—Where did Timberland’s leather come from?—was legitimate, and that he didn’t know the answer. The idea of tracing hides back from tannery to pasture was daunting, but he saw the issue as a battle for the hearts and minds of environmental activists.
The company opened a dialogue with Greenpeace and worked with its Brazilian supplier to get the origin of its hides certified. Meanwhile, Swartz made sure that all those e-mails received replies. In the end, Timberland praised Greenpeace for bringing the issue to the industry’s attention, and Greenpeace acknowledged that Timberland had taken a leadership position on it.
You can tell a lot about how your day is going to unfold by the number of e-mails that are waiting for you. I’m a pretty early riser—4 AM most days—so I typically start out ahead of the game when it comes to e-mails. But on June 1, 2009, they kept coming, and coming, and coming.
HBR Learning
