A Partner In Deed

Terry Kellogg is perhaps not your stereotypical environmentalist—he’s been dealing for the past four-plus years with multinational corporate operations, and holds an MBA from Yale. This intrepid skiing enthusiast, whose “other” Yale degree is a Masters in Environmental Management and who is described by colleagues as an “all around nice guy,” has helped put The Timberland Company at the forefront of corporate environmental leadership in his tenure there as Director of Environmental Affairs.

One early and ongoing focus for Terry at Timberland was energy efficiency. Beginning in 2001, Terry worked to identify opportunities for energy savings and then make those possibilities, realities. For example, lighting retrofits at the company’s corporate headquarters in Stratham, New Hampshire, and European distribution center in Holland resulted in significant dollar and emission savings. Comprehensive audits of Timberland’s facilities in the U. S. found additional energy upgrade opportunities with payback periods of less than one year. And lighting retrofits at Timberland’s U. S. distribution centers, also initiated by Terry, dramatically improved the light quality in spaces while reducing energy use by 50%, saving the company thousands of dollars each year and cutting close to 1,200 tons in carbon emissions.

Success from these projects has resulted in more detailed studies of energy use in office and retail operations. It has also paved Terry’s way in pursuing implementation of additional climate-friendly measures at Timberland—including substantial purchases of green energy and “green tags.” A major step in that direction was the 2002 purchase of carbon offsets for the entirety of Timberland’s annual retail operation—all 28 of its stores—from NativeEnergy. This purchase simultaneously helped further development of wind power on a Native American reservation and retired the credits for more than 2,400 tons of CO2 through Clean Air-Cool Planet.

Terry, with Cool Planet Deputy Director Bob Sheppard, displays the certificate acknowledging Timberland’s purchase of green tags from NativeEnergy.

Children on the Rosebud Sioux reservation all smiles at the dedication of “their” new wind turbine, financed through the purchase of green tags from NativeEnergy by Timberland and other companies and individuals.

Said Terry, "Timberland recognized that with the success of our retail business came the responsibility to minimize our environmental impact. We saw this partnership with NativeEnergy and Clean Air-Cool Planet as a major step toward making The Timberland Company a climate-neutral business." Since 2002, Timberland has continued to make annual purchases of green tags, as well as exploring solar and other renewable energy projects.

A very recent Timberland initiative developed by Terry and his staff has gained the company a lot of attention in the local and regional press: an incentive for employees to purchase hybrid vehicles. The hybrid incentive, which allows employees who opt for the hybrid Toyota Prius, Honda Civic, Ford Escape or other hybrid models to get up to a $3000 grant from the company, joins several carpooling and other incentive programs on the list of climate-friendly transportation measures that Terry has helped shepherd. In fact, the hybrid grant program has been so successful that in the first three months it offered the program the company signed on as many participants as they expected to have by the end of the first year.

Terry takes measurements for a park picnic table at the 2002 Serv-A-Palooza event in York, Maine.

Terry’s commitment has made Cool Planet’s partnership with Timberland a fabulous success story. His wide-ranging environmental work with the outdoor clothing retailer, not limited to climate change initiatives, has encompassed work with sustainable sourcing materials (including organically-grown cotton, toxics reduction and chemical usage. Terry has also made sure that the Cool Planet gang was included in Timberland Earth Day and volunteer events, particularly the annual Serv-a-Palooza festival, turning abandonded railroad rights-of-way into hiking trails, hauling debris from local parks and repairing walkways along scenic rivers.

Since joining The Timberland Company in 2000, Terry has been personally involved in – often directly responsible for – dozens of carbon-cutting company initiatives. He was a crucial driver in the partnership between Timberland and Clean Air-Cool Planet in 2001, and during his tenure Timberland has overseen reduction by nearly 10% of its carbon footprint. What’s more, thanks largely to Terry’s efforts, the company has begun to set its sights on a more ambitious goal yet: carbon neutrality

Terry recently moved on from his role at Timberland to start a new position as Executive Director of One Percent for the Planet, an alliance of businesses committed to leveraging their resources to create a healthier planet by donating at least 1% of their annual net revenues to environmental organizations worldwide. No doubt, he’ll continue to be a Climate Champion in his new work there.

--Jennifer Schroeder