June 18, 2008 - In a bid for greater transparency, Timberland is ditching its annual corporate social responsibility report in favor of quarterly CSR updates to be posted online.

Timberland will release an quarterly "dashboard" of performance metrics, comparing progress against the company's sustainability goals for 2015. Performance metrics focus on four areas: energy, product, workplaces, and service.

The company has already released the first batch of updates on JustMeans.com, its social media platform focusing on CSR issues.

"As our stakeholder community grows increasingly sophisticated in their understanding of sustainability issues, they demand greater information about our CSR initiatives," explains Alex Hausman, Timberland's CSR reporting manager. "This is where transparency and accountability – through accessible, relevant and timely information about our work in CSR – is critical."

The benefits extend to CSR management as well, according to Timberland. "We believe in the adage 'What gets measured gets managed,'" says Hausman. "Quarterly reporting will strengthen our communication with stakeholders, and also drive progress internally against our CSR initiatives."

In addition to the quarterly updates, Timberland will publish a full CSR report every two years. The move to a biennial schedule will give the company time to further refine its reporting structure, Timberland says.

"Developing a full CSR report is a time-intensive process, generally taking about nine months – and allowing little time for investments in process improvements, development of data infrastructure, testing new mediums and other innovations necessary in effective CSR reporting," the company said in a statement.

Timberland has won raves for its sustainability reporting, most recently from the Ceres coalition and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.