Timberland Reduces Its Footprint

A recent hiking binge left The Green Miles in need of some new footwear. Sneakers are fine for most trails, but every once in a while you'll regret it when you jump off a ledge and a piece of gravel jabs the bottom of your foot through the soft sole.

So I went shopping online for some new hiking boots. I only looked at Timberlands because of their commitment to sustainability. Timberland has pledged to make all its owned-and-operated facilities carbon neutral by 2010.

The shoes arrived today and literally announced their eco-friendliness from the moment I looked at the box. It had a big "RECYCLED" label on one end and had clearly been used to ship shoes a few times before making it to Arlington. Reusing is one of the few things that can truly be called carbon neutral, making the box free of cost for both Timberland and the planet.

Inside the box was a shoe box made of 100% post-consumer recycled content and printed with soy-based ink. The shoe-stuffers looked to be made of recycled materials. In fact, the only part of the package that wasn't recyclable was the plastic shoe-wrap - which itself was made from recycled materials.

The bottom of the shoe carried an "our footprint" sticker. It looked like a nutritional label, but instead of calories and dietary fiber it counted renewable energy and recycled content.

Finally, I noticed the box said "reuse, then recycle." It didn't take long for someone to find a new use for it:

Why the Cold Weather Makes It Harder to Blog

It's getting harder to blog as the weather gets colder. Why? Because I can't sit down at my laptop without this happening:
It doesn't matter how many times I try to show her to the couch -- it's cold and gray outside and my lap is a heated mattress. I suppose if she could talk like Get Fuzzy's Bucky, she'd be making the case that it's an energy efficient arrangement.